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With just about every federal agency facing spending cuts and federal workers likely to be furloughed, President Obama said today that he’d be joining in on the belt-tightening by returning five percent of his own salary to the Treasury, reports the New York Times:

The voluntary move would be retroactive to March 1 and apply through the rest of the calendar year, the official said. The White House came up with the 5 percent figure to approximate the level of automatic spending cuts to non-defense federal agencies that took effect that day.

“The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” the official said.

Since President Obama makes $400,000 per year, the five percent cut over 10 months would amount to just short of $17,000. Given that the federal government spends between $300 to $400 million an hour, Obama’s contribution would fund, well, not even a second’s worth of government work. Additionally, Obama is still making plenty in royalties from book sales, so it’s unlikely that he’s going to feel the pinch of a self-imposed five percent tax cut.