On Christmas Eve, Dr. Anthony Fauci turned 81. However, he is not retiring just yet.

If he did, Fauci would reap the largest federal retirement package in U.S. history.

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com estimate Dr. Fauci's annual retirement would exceed $350,000. Thereafter, his pension and benefits would continue to increase through annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Fauci has 55 years of service as a federal employee.

For the second year in a row, Fauci was the most highly compensated federal employee and out earned the president, four star generals, and roughly 4.3 million of his colleagues. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Fauci earned $434,312 in 2020, the latest year available, up from $417,608 in 2019.

Fauci is currently the Chief Medical Advisor to the President. However, his big salary boost came in 2004 under the George W. Bush Administration (as we reported earlier at Forbes) when Fauci received a "permanent pay adjustment" for his biodefense work. In January 2000, Fauci was also appointed to the Ready Reserve Corps, a corps of "officers on full-time extended active duty."

$340,000-$350,000 each year in federal retirement payments

Federal employees with Fauci's length of service can retire to earn "80 percent of [their] high-3 average salary, plus credit for [their] sick leave," according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In November, we filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to determine Dr. Fauci's currently unpublished 2021 salary, job description, royalties, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and employment contract. The case moved quickly and the federal judge ordered production starting on February 1, 2022.