Suzanne McGee wrote about research into how much society should value Santa:

• Insure.com looked at all the jobs that Santa does and added up how much he would earn if he took those skills to other jobs.
• Overall it came out to $139,924 this year.
• This is mostly due to his prowess as “an industrial engineer” managing a toy factory in the North Pole.
• His value includes 182.5 hours a year spent in labour negotiations with the elves.
• He also makes some pocket money from all the personal guest appearances he makes when he visits malls.
• The figure does not, however, include hazard pay for having to spend so much time in the North Pole.
• Santa will be pleased that he’s entitled to a raise though. Last year the same work was worth $2,000 less.
• According to (real) surveys about 29% of people think that Santa should be paid $1 for every child, meaning he should be paid around $1.8 billion.
• Another 29% of survey respondents thought he should be paid nothing.

Read about the study, its methodology, and more over here. And read our own analysis of how much it would cost to make Santa’s presents here.

Source: Fiscal Times