Elon Musk had promised it: those who worked for the Department of Government Efficiency DOGE would do so without compensation. However, the reality is quite different. The agency, created with the goal of reducing federal bureaucracy and optimizing public spending, is now hiring full-time staff with significant salaries, funded by taxpayers.
Some staff members, as reported by the American magazine Wired, receive impressive salaries. Kyle Schutt, a computer engineer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, earns $195,200 a year, the maximum allowed for a federal employee. Jeremy Lewin, tasked with dismantling USAID and involved in operations at the National Institutes of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, makes around $167,000 annually. Meanwhile, the young entrepreneur Nate Cavanaugh receives over $120,500 for his internal work at the General Services Administration GSA, where the average salary for an employee with 13 years of experience is $128,565.
When Musk began recruiting for DOGE, he described the position as “boring” and emphasized that he did not expect any salary. Since then, the department has overseen drastic cuts within the federal General Services Administration, including the elimination of the 18F unit dedicated to technological efficiency, and has planned the sale of over 500 government buildings.
While the South African tycoon continues to stress that the agency operates with “extreme transparency,” he has never made public details about salary ranges and budget management. According to a report by the non-profit investigative organization ProPublica, as of February 20, funding for the Department had reached $40 million.
Some DOGE members, including Musk himself, are classified as “Special Government Employees,” advisory roles that can last up to 130 days and may or may not include compensation. Those who exceed certain income thresholds must submit financial disclosure forms, while volunteers are exempt from this requirement. This status allows them to continue receiving external fees and, in some cases, not disclose potential conflicts of interest.
A notable collaborator is communications expert Katie Miller, who kept her previous public relations role for more than a month after the current administration took office, working with clients like Apple and a Saudi-funded golf league.
However, some team members do appear to be working without compensation. Meanwhile, the agency has adjusted its approach and is now openly advertising paid positions for software specialists, cybersecurity experts, and tech professionals.
Musk, when interviewed about this, stated that DOGE engineers, if they worked in the private sector, could earn millions of dollars, whereas as federal employees they receive only a fraction of that amount. According to the online platform Glassdoor, a software engineer in Silicon Valley earns an average of $184,000 per year, with figures exceeding $220,000 after a decade of experience.
Although Elon Musk does not receive compensation from the department, he remains the richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at over $350 billion. Additionally, his companies have indirectly benefited from over $38 billion in public funding over the past 20 years. Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, believes that the salary issue within the agency should be more thoroughly scrutinized, as many employees earn more than those who have been laid off, despite having less experience in the field.
