Anthony Fauci to receive largest retirement package in American government history

Dr Fauci has served as a US government employee for 55 years

Dr Anthony Fauci speaks during a briefing at the White House (AP)

Anthony Fauci is likely to rake in the highest ever government retirement package in the history of the US, with an annual payment exceeding $350,000 (£259,000).

Dr Fauci, who turned 81 on Christmas eve and is the chief medical adviser to president Joe Biden, will have his pension and benefits continue to increase through annual cost-of-living adjustments, Forbes reported.

The top infectious diseases expert has had a 55-year-long career in the US government and is one of the highest-compensated federal employees. He is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He was paid $434,312 (£322,309) in 2020, a four per cent jump from his 2019 salary of $417,608 (£309,913).

In January 2000, Dr Fauci was appointed to the Ready Reserve Corps, a corps of “officers on full-time extended active duty”.

His salary, however, reportedly received a boost through a “permanent pay adjustment” in 2004 under the George W Bush Administration.

According to the US Office of Personnel Management, government employees with service equivalent to that of Dr Fauci’s can retire to earn 80 per cent of their high-3 average salary along with credit for sick leave.

Dr Fauci is also likely eligible for an annuity, which is paid by the federal government to employees in service for 10 years. The employees are eligible for “2 per cent of high-3 average salary [highest average basic pay earned during any three consecutive years of service] for each year".

“If he’d left federal service at the end of FY2020, figuring 80 [per cent] of his highest three-year average, would mean a federal pension of $333,745 a year, plus cost-of-living increases,” Forbes estimated, using the last three years of Dr Fauci’s salary.

It is expected that his 2021 and 2022 salaries will be the same as or even higher than the previous years.

However, Dr Fauci seems to have no plan of retiring anytime soon.

“There’s no way I’m going to walk away from this until we get this under control. I mean, that’s the purpose of what we do. That’s — that’s our mission in life. In the middle of it, I’m not going to walk away​,” he told ABC News.