The world's strongest. How Much Do Central Bank Governors Make?

The smartest don't equal the richest

Many people are instilled with the desire to be smart from childhood, because they consider a developed intellect to be the key to success and good earnings in the future. However, as statistics show, the smartest workers do not always become the highest-paid. According to Bloomberg, citing a study published in the European Sociological Review, higher general intelligence is associated with higher wages, but only up to the threshold of $57,300 dollars per year. And the richest 1% of people score worse on intelligence and cognitive tests than those who earn significantly less. The authors of the study concluded that social success is driven more by family resources, connections, and luck than by mental ability. In addition, they acknowledged that their analytics did not take into account people's non-cognitive abilities, such as motivation levels or superior social skills, which can help workers land high-paying jobs.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell's Salary Shocked Experts

The head of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, is considered such an example of a public figure whose importance to the financial world does not correspond to his rather modest salary for this level of influence. This week, Powell said in a Q&A session with Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein that his salary is roughly $190,000 a year. According to Wall Street Oasis, a website that tracks financial compensation, Powell's salary is within the typical range of base salaries for investment bank employees: $150,000 to $200,000. On average, bank employees' bonuses amount to about 50% of their annual salary. However, Western experts were shocked by such a low salary in one of the most significant positions in the financial world. That's about the same as U.S. investment bank analysts with three years of experience.

It is worth noting that the salaries of federal appointees, including Powell, are determined by the US Congress. In addition, like other senior U.S. officials, Powell's salary has been frozen since 2014. The head of the Fed himself considers his remuneration to be sufficient and fair.

Is Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina richer than Powell?

The head of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, did not report income in 2022, but at the end of 2021, according to the declaration, she earned 38,9 million rubles. Her salary is growing steadily, in 2020, Nabiullina's income amounted to 35.9 million rubles. In addition, the head of the regulator owns an apartment with an area of 112.2 square meters and a Jaguar S-Type car. If you convert Nabiullina's annual salary into dollars, you get about $520,000, which is more than twice as high as that of her American counterpart, Jerome Powell.

The governor of the Bank of England "does not remember" the size of his salary, and the head of the ECB tries not to advertise it

ECB President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England President Andrew Bailey do not like to discuss their earnings and tend not to advertise them. In recent years, Bailey has come under fire for urging Britons not to demand higher wages despite the deteriorating quality of life in order to curb rising inflation. According to The Sun, in 2022, during a discussion with Labour MP Angela Eagle about how much healthcare workers in the UK earn per year, the head of the Bank of England said he could not remember exactly how much his own salary was. However, Bailey was quick to point out that he officially earns $575,538 ($684,890). This is 18 times higher than the average salary in Britain. Experts and ordinary Britons consider Bailey's income to be inflated and unfair.

Christine Lagarde has already worked in two significant positions for the financial world during her career. From 2011 to 2019, she was the Managing Director of the IMF with an annual salary of $467,940, and then became President of the European Central Bank in 2019. Officially, her salary as head of the ECB is not discussed anywhere, but according to the WageIndicator.co.uk's website, it is $375,048 ($446,301). This means that during the years of the ECB presidency, Lagarde's income probably not only did not grow, but also decreased slightly. Christine Lagarde has not made any provocative statements about the salaries of the population, she herself does not discuss the topic of her income, so there is no clear public position on the validity of her earnings.