Following the lead of President Obama and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, John Kerry will also be donating 5% of his salary, but not to the Treasury. Instead the secretary of state will give his 5% of his $183,500 salary to charity.

"In recognition of the special circumstances of sequester, the secretary does intend to give the equivalent of 5 percent of his government salary to an appropriate charity that will benefit employees of the State Department," confirmed State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

Nuland said Kerry, whose net worth is between $184.25 million and $287.69 million, according to the Center For Responsive Politics, already gives a significant amount of money to charity. In this case he will be donating to a charity that directly benefits foreign service officers, Nuland said. She said the charity in question had not been decided yet, but that Kerry is considering charities that help the families of killed or injured State Department employees, as well as charities that may benefit children of diplomats and foreign service officers.

Asked why Kerry didn't give the money back to the Treasury as the president and Hagel are doing, Nuland said Kerry "wanted to ensure that his contribution made a direct impact on our larger State Department family."