What If We Paid Santa?

Santa is much more than a jolly old gentleman in a red suit. His responsibilities include managing a toy workshop, tasting cookies and milk, and driving a sleigh.

Knowing what he does, we can calculate what he would earn.

Santa’s Wages

We can estimate Santa’s annual income because he isn’t the only one who checks everything twice, wraps toys, and drives a sleigh. Since accounting clerks, professional shoppers, and pilots do (sort of) what Santa does, we can look at what they and other comparable occupations earn.

Combining it all, we wind up with $186,626.

Because, in 2024, Santa took home (to the North Pole) $178,672, his earnings increased $7,954. Happily, comparing his 4 percent gain to the U.S. 12-month inflation rate that is somewhere between 2.7 percent and 3 percent (not sure because of the government shutdown) we see his spending power is up. If we use 3 percent inflation, then a current salary of $184,000 would have kept him equal to last year. So Santa is ahead by more than $2,600.

Mostly though, the earnings boost came from piloting the sleigh (+12 percent), and cookie and milk tasting (+7 percent), Then too, running the workshop, professional shopping, and checking lists each were up by 5 percent. Meanwhile, the main dip came from being an announcer (-8 percent). Letter reading was also down by just by 1 percent.

This is how insure.com calculated Santa’s earnings:

Somewhat similarly, most U.S. workers also saw their wages and salaries climb close to 4 percent.

Our Bottom Line:  Wage and Salary Growth

To find wage and salary gains, we can go to BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) jobs data. In their December jobs report, we are told that, at $36.86, average hourly earnings for private non-farm workers are up by 3.5 percent.

This graph illustrates the September 12 month change in wages and salaries:

Like Santa, U.S. workers have wage gains that boosted their purchasing power.

My sources and more: For more analysis of Santa’s salary, this insure.com estimate has the details. Then, this recent BLS press release had the jobs report, perhaps with debatable facts because of the shutdown.

Please note that this is an entirely revised updated version of a past econlife post.