The amount that Elon Musk reportedly pays his employees at Tesla has been revealed.
The tech mogul is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of a whopping $400 billion.
In fact, he’s so rich that Musk has been predicted to become the first ever trillionaire by around 2027.
His leadership of Tesla hasn’t been without controversy.
As the world turns more to remote working, Musk has been vocal against it, saying that if staff were against returning to the office then ‘they should pretend to work somewhere else’.
In an interview with Insider, Jim Cantrell, who was one of the founding employees at SpaceX shared what it was like to work with Musk.
He said: “Working with Elon was like working with two different people: the good Elon and the bad Elon, and you never knew which you were going to get.”
According to Cantrell, ‘good Elon’ was fun and had big ideas but ‘bad Elon’ came with a lot of yelling.
And now we’ve found out just how much his employees are compensated.
According to a report by Business Insider, the majority of Musk’s workforce at Tesla makes between $85,000 as a logistics analyst and $175,000 as a software development engineer.
It doesn’t seem like everyone is thrilled by it though, with some people who claim to know people who work for Tesla taking to social media to share their thoughts.
On Reddit, one user wrote: “I know a bunch of people at work there, 50 hours a week minimum for engineers, high stress, high turnover, etc.”
And another added: “A friend of mine who was on the vehicle team had to leave last year due to the insane hours.”
Cantrell went on to say: “Elon wouldn’t expect you to do anything he wouldn’t do, but the lengths he’s willing to go is unusual for most people. I suspect the same thing will happen at Twitter.”
Musk previously revealed that he’d cut about 80% of the workforce at X, formerly Twitter, when he took over the social media platform.
But it does seem like the remaining employees are on a great salary.
According to data collected from Glassdoor and Indeed, directors and group managers make over $235,000 while data scientists make around $267,000.
Analysts at X make around $135,000.
In 2023, an email to X staff was leaked where Musk had offered out stock grants to his employees.
The value of these shares equal a massive $20 billion.
In the email, Musk wrote: “I see a clear, but difficult, path to a >$250B valuation, meaning stock granted now would be worth ten times more.”
Elon Musk confirms shocking Tesla salary he receives yearly as he’s on course to become world’s first trillionaire
Elon Musk has confirmed the shocking Tesla salary he receives yearly as he is on course to become the world’s first trillionaire.
The richest man in the world heads up many different ventures including Tesla and SpaceX, and most recently found himself at the center of government as an unelected official.
However, with Musk announcing that he’s stepping down from his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to focus on his other businesses, he has also publicly shared how much he makes from his role as CEO of Tesla.
Taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Musk reposted a screenshot from a Wall Street Journal article, which read: “Elon Musk was the lowest-paid chief executive of an S&P 500 company last year. Tesla paid him $0.”
WSJ: "Elon Musk was the lowest-paid chief executive of an S&P 500 company last year. Tesla paid him $0." pic.twitter.com/ToWMxfpygo
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 2, 2025
Musk added: “Zero for seven years, despite increasing the value of the company >2000%.”
This prompted a lot of people to reply in the comment section, with one user writing: “Anyone who understands the tax system knows the reasons you aren’t getting paid has zero to do with morals and everything to do with being financially prudent.”
Another said: “It’s not like the extra paycheck would make any difference for you financially though. It must be lovely being able to work for free. I too could solve problems and build cool shit if my parents gave me millions to start.”
And a third person added: “This would all hit a little harder and garner more sympathy if you weren’t the world’s richest man with a net worth of over $330,000,000,000.”
How does Elon Musk make his money?
So, if the billionaire doesn’t take a paycheck from his role at Tesla, how does he manage to keep getting richer?
Despite his seemingly charitable endeavor when it comes to the EV manufacturing company, Musk isn’t strictly making nothing from Tesla.
Back in 2018, Musk made an agreement with the board that instead of a salary, he would receive a compensation plan that ties his personal earnings to Tesla’s valuation and revenue.
In fact, he’s making a fortune through his ownership of his various companies and his wealth is largely gained from the value of the shares he has in these businesses, in particular Tesla.
As of November 2020, approximately 75% of Musk’s wealth came from the stock he had in Tesla.
This fell to around 37% two years later in December 2022 after he sold almost $40 billion worth of shares.
Elon Musk speaks out about Tesla Pi phone that could rival the iPhone
Elon Musk might have found his next big venture, as the tech billionaire has spoken out about the idea that he could get into the smartphone game. With his fingers in many pies, Musk’s businesses include everything from electric vehicles to rockets, artificial intelligence to tunnel construction.
The world’s richest man has promised to get back into Tesla after stepping back from politics, and although his EV baby has faced some massive losses since he spectacularly claimed President Donald Trump was named in the Epstein Files, he’s hoping to turn his fortunes around.
It’s not just electric vehicles coming off the production line at Tesla, with Elon Musk showing off the company’s ambitious Optimus robots. Tesla has plenty of futuristic tech at its disposal, so could it be a matter of time until Mr. Musk tries to take on Apple and Google with his own smartphone?
There have been wild rumors that a so-called ‘Tesla Pi’ phone could be on the way to rival the likes of the iPhone. As well as connecting to Musk’s Starlink satellites, there are sensationalist claims that the Tesla Pi would be able to work on Mars, as Musk hopes to send humans there. That might seem pretty far-fetched, but among its innovations, one of the most popular ideas is a supposed ‘perpetual battery’ that would mean we never have to charge our phones again.
When grilled on the idea of a Tesla smartphone in October 2024, Musk downplayed the idea but admitted he’ll do it if he has to. Addressing the crowd in Philadelphia, the billionaire admitted: “Man, I sure hope we don’t have to make a phone. That’s a lot of work. The idea of making a phone makes me want to die. But if we have to make a phone, we will, but we will aspire not to make a phone.”
ELON: WE'LL MAKE A PHONE IF THAT'S NECESSARY
“Man, I sure hope we don't have to make a phone.
That's a lot of work.
The idea of making a phone makes me want to die.
But if we have to make a phone, we will, but we will aspire not to make a phone.
You know, I do think that… pic.twitter.com/qF2oXyrd6z
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 19, 2024
Highlighting the work of key competitors, he continued: “You know, I do think that the various companies and Apple and Google, Android and whatnot, they need to make sure they don’t have a heavy hand in the app store and whatnot, or they will create a forcing function for there to be a competitor.
“But man, I dread the idea of making a phone. But if that turns out to be necessary, we’ll do it, but hopefully it is not necessary.”
He also spoke about it on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, concluding: “No, we’re not doing a phone…We could do a phone. The operating system of Tesla is Linux-based, but we’ve written a massive amount of software on top of that.”
It’s true we’ve seen other tech giants try to muscle in on markets and fail spectacularly (remember when Microsoft’s Zune tried to take on the iPod?), so we can understand why Musk might be cautious.
For the time being, Tesla’s focus remains on EVs, autonomous tech, and energy solutions. By the sounds of it, potential iPhone rivals will have to wait.
Shocking items reportedly found in DC office after Elon Musk’s DOGE employees left it in disarray
Elon Musk has seemingly left DOGE with a bang after reports reveal the ‘shocking’ items left by employees of the department after leaving a key government building they had ‘unlawfully’ taken over.
More has been said about what workers in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been up to than how they’ve been working during US President Donald Trump’s second term so far, yet it’s almost as shocking when you dive into the conditions under now-departed leader Elon Musk.
Musk made a grand showing of working incredibly long hours once he officially took charge of the controversial department, as employees were allegedly working around 120 hours across every day of the week, so much so that a company even sent over futuristic ‘sleep pods’ so workers wouldn’t have to go home.
Musk called this their ‘super power’ in relation to the more balanced working life of a typical bureaucrat, although doctors have suggested that working conditions like these are heavily linked to a premature death.
New reports from the Telegraph now indicate that DOGE workers have left a mess in an office building they had ‘unlawfully’ commandeered, and the details regarding the specific undisposed items will likely shock you.
What items did DOGE employees leave in the office?
Cleaners in the US Institute of Peace (Usip) offices, which DOGE employees had taken over earlier this year, revealed that the building was full of cockroaches and rodents, and there was seemingly marijuana and empty beer bottles lying around too.
Colin O’Brien, Usip head of security, also detailed that there were hundreds of laptops found in the offices that had been discarded by DOGE workers, and these were ‘haphazardly’ stacked on top of each other. In addition, chargers for the laptops were found in the bins.
O’Brien called the mess left by departing DOGE workers “neglect,” adding that “these folks don’t know how to run a large, multi-building commercial office complex.”
This isn’t the first time that Musk has been associated with accusations of drug use either, as the richest man in the world was left furious after a New York Times report accused him of using a ‘cocktail’ of drugs while working for the Trump administration.
He pushed to swiftly change the subject, before slamming the newspaper and accusing it of reporting “lies about the Russiagate hoax.”
Why were DOGE workers kicked out of the building?
The reason this shocking discovery has come to light is because DOGE employees were finally forcibly removed from the Usip building, allowing employees of the Institute to finally return to their post.
DOGE has repeatedly attempted to shut down the institute, laying off as many workers as possible as part of widespread cuts, and they had taken the office building as their own personal working space.
Usip acting president George Moose declared DOGE’s attempts to commandeer their office building as “an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch,” and it was only last month that workers at the Institute were finally allowed back in.
This was following a court ruling that called DOGE’s attempts to remove Usip “unlawful,” outlining that it led by “illegitimately-installed leaders,” although DOGE certainly left their mark in the items they refused to dispose of before finally returning control.
Featured Image Credit: Win McNamee / Staff via Getty
Elon Musk’s Tesla sees $150,000,000,000 wiped as billionaire makes shocking claim on Donald Trump
Grab the popcorn because the girls are fighting again. While many of us sat back and waited for Russia or China to trigger World War III, little did we know that an altogether more explosive clash of the titans was about to detonate in our front rooms. Donald Trump and Elon Musk have officially gone to war on an epic scale.
Some thought it would only be a matter of time until the President of the United States and the world’s richest man would have a falling out, and while the cracks started to show when Elon Musk began criticizing the POTUS’ big, beautiful bill, few could’ve predicted it would quite go down like this. There are sure to be plenty caught in the crossfire, but already, Tesla has taken a major hit.
Musk took to X to make some scandalous claims about President Donald Trump, sharing a post that seems destined to go down in history as one of the platform’s most-viewed. The coveted Epstein Files have been a hot topic of conversation since Attorney General Pamela Bondi released the first wave in February 2025, and while Donald Trump wasn’t named, Musk claims his name can be found within the archives.
Posting on X, the tech mogul spectacularly claimed: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
The spiral continued, with Musk threatening to pull SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft (seemingly marooning astronauts on the International Space Station), and also calling for President Trump’s impeachment.
Trump threatened to cut off government contracts to Musk’s companies, leading to the latter delivering a Hollywood-esque, “Go ahead, make my day.” While the long-term fallout of these posts remains to be seen, it’s already hit Tesla hard in the pocket as it lost around $150 billion in value and closed 14.3% down for the day.
Speaking to CBS MoneyWatch, Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives warned how the dispute is “sending shivers down the backs of Tesla investors.”
He continued: “This has gone from a candlelight dinner bromance to a knife fight. Neither Musk nor Trump are one to back off.”
In a note to investors, Ives concluded: “The quickly deteriorating friendship and now ‘major beef’ between Musk and Trump is jaw-dropping and a shock to the market, and putting major fear for Tesla investors on what is ahead.”
Musk’s electric vehicle baby had already been struggling since he stepped up as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, with the billionaire recently having to face a tough earnings call where he addressed a 70% slump in profits. He said he was stepping back from politics to focus on his ventures like Tesla and SpaceX, but as this war of the words rages on, there are concerns that there won’t be any of Tesla left to invest in.
