Thanks To A Unique Scheduling Quirk, Vanna White Might Have The Greatest Job In Human History

By Brian Warner on March 13, 2025 in Articles › Entertainment

What is the absolute best job in the world? Actually no. What's the absolute best job in human history?

A good answer might be pro athlete. LeBron James makes nearly $50 million a year traveling the country to play a game he loves. Imagine explaining that job to someone 100 years ago. Another good job is A-list actor. Actors make millions of dollars for a few months of work on a film set where they are pampered like royalty. Oh! Royalty! That's got to be the best gig of all time, right?

YES, these are all examples of elite, relatively easy, high-paying vocations, but there is one job that puts all of these to shame: Vanna White has the greatest job in human history. Not only is Vanna's job very easy, thanks to a scheduling quirk she's technically higher paid than most professional athletes and A-list actors…

(Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for CBS Media Ventures / Sony Pictures Television)

Spinning Her Wheels

Vanna White's path to Wheel of Fortune wasn't a predictable one. Born in 1957 in South Carolina, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s with dreams of making it big in Hollywood. Like many aspiring actors, she took on small modeling and acting gigs while waiting for her big break. That break came in 1982 when Wheel of Fortune was looking for a new co-host to replace Susan Stafford. White auditioned alongside 200 other hopefuls, and after an impressive screen test, she landed the gig that would change her life forever.

At the time, Wheel of Fortune was just beginning to take off as a syndicated game show. Hosted by Pat Sajak, it quickly became a household favorite, and Vanna White became an integral part of its success. Her charm, grace, and dazzling wardrobe made her an instant fan favorite, and before long, she was one of the most recognizable faces on television.

Fast forward over four decades, and White is still the face of Wheel of Fortune, though now she co-hosts with Ryan Seacrest. Vanna continues to dazzle audiences with a smile and a seemingly endless supply of stunning gowns. But what really makes her job so enviable is her work schedule. And while

A Wheely Fortunate Schedule

For her hosting duties, Vanna White's salary is $10 million. That's impressive enough on its own, but here's the really amazing part… Vanna only works 34 days a year!

As Vanna recently confirmed in an interview with the Elvis Duran show, Wheel of Fortune tapes just 34 days a year. Put another way, she has 331 days OFF a year.

Thanks to that schedule, Vanna technically makes more than LeBron James on a per-workday basis.

At $10 million per year, a 34-day schedule equates to $294,118 per working day.

Now let's contrast with LeBron James. LeBron James' NBA salary is $48.7 million. There are 82 regular-season games in an NBA season. But that's not the full commitment. When you include training camp, practices, team meetings, and travel, LeBron works 174 days in an NBA season. That doesn't include playoff games. If the Lakers made a deep run into the NBA Finals, it could add roughly 50 extra working days to the season. If you call it 200 days as a conservative estimate, LeBron James makes $279,885 per working day.

In other words, Vanna White makes $14,233 more per workday than LeBron James. She never has to get on a plane, take an elbow to the gut, run wind sprints, or deal with post-game press conferences—she simply shows up, puts on six dresses, turns letters, and cashes in. And that is why Vanna White has the greatest job in human history.