Santa’s ‘salary’ jumps by 5% this year to $178,500 — if he got paid for delivering all those toys
Santa Claus probably got a bigger salary bump than you did this year assuming, of course, that he was paid for his annual gift distribution service in U.S. dollars.
Insure.com analyzed the various tasks Santa is typically thought to be responsible for and found that — if he were paid — his pay increase this year would actually outpace the average worker. Over the last year, the average American worker's wages have grown at a steady 3.9 percent — outpacing inflation, even though it may not feel like it for most employees.
After analyzing Santa's core responsibilities for more than a decade, Insure pulled together an estimate for his annual earnings and found that this year he'd enjoy a nice 4.7 percent pay bump over his previous year's salary.
What does that translate to in cold, hard cash? $178,620. His wage last year was estimated at $170,583, so not too shabby for old Saint Nick.
It's actually not his best pay bump in recent years; in 2023 he actually saw a 5 percent salary increase, according to Insure.com's analysis.
The company tallied the wage increases for the various fields that Santa's typical work would represent in the real world to tabulate their salary estimate.
Those tasks include running his workshop, which Insure.com interpreted as industrial engineering, noting that vocation saw a 5 percent pay increase in 2024. They determined he likely had labor negotiations with the elves and noted that labor negotiators saw an 8 percent salary increase this year.
Other tasks included taking care of reindeer, piloting his sleigh, wrapping gifts, chimney work, hanging around malls, a private investigator — he knows if you've been bad or good, after all — and snowplow work.
That last one, admittedly, might be a bit of a reach.
The takeaway? If you want to make Santa money, simply work numerous, highly skilled jobs, and you too can earn slightly more than a member of Congress — assuming a new Congressional pay raise baked into an upcoming government funding bill isn't blocked.
