World Leaders' Salaries

Interesting article on Finance Yahoo! 

How world leaders' salaries stack up

Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a pay cut of 10% as his country's economy sinks into a deep recession.

But how does his salary compare to those of other world leaders?

Here is how the pay of prime ministers and presidents of the big developed and emerging economies stack up, according to the most recent official data and converted into U.S. dollars at the current rate.

President Obama leads the pack with $400,000 a year. The presidential salary doubled when George W. Bush became president in 2001.

In addition, Obama gets a tax-free expense account worth $50,000.

1. United States
Barack Obama: $400,000

2. Canada
Stephen Harper: $260,000

3. Germany
Angela Merkel: $234,400

Merkel's salary as German chancellor is set at 216,000 euros a year ($234,383). The chancellor and her ministers got a 2.2% pay rise at the beginning of March, according to government documents.

4. South Africa
Jacob Zuma: $223,500

5. United Kingdom
David Cameron: $214,800

The British prime minister earns £142,500 ($214,782) a year. That includes his salary as a member of parliament, which is £67,060.

6. Japan
Shinzo Abe: $202,700

7. France
Francois Hollande: $194,300

The French president would have ranked much higher on this list, had he not taken a 30% pay cut the moment he took office in 2012.

Without the haircut, Hollande would have earned 255,600 euros a year ($274,522), second only to Obama. Now he makes $194,251.

8. Russia
Vladimir Putin: $136,000

In the face of his country's worst economic crisis in years, Putin said last week he was cutting his salary by 10%.. He now earns roughly 8.2 million rubles per year ($136,000) as Russian president.

9. Italy
Matteo Renzi: $124,600

10. Brazil
Dilma Rousseff: $120,000

11. India
Narendra Modi: $30,300

The Indian prime minister's salary is just 1,600,000 rupees a month, which comes to little over $30,000 a year. That's according to an official response to a freedom of information request submitted by local media.

12. China
Xi Jinping: $22,000

He might be in charge of the world's second largest economy, but Chinese President Xi Jinping's salary is just $22,000. And that's after a 60% pay rise at the start of this year.