Some staff members of Elon Musk’s so-called government efficiency ministry are getting strong taxpayer-funded salaries from federal agencies that are being cut and burning.
Jeremy Lewin, a mission to demolish the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), also played a role in the Governor’s invasion and listed the Consumer Financial Protection Agency that earned more than $167,000 a year. Lewin is assigned to the General Services Administration’s administrator’s office.
Kyle Schutt, a software engineer with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was listed as a $195,200 salary through the GSA, where he was assigned to the office of the deputy administrator. This is the maximum amount any “general timeline” federal employee can earn every year, including bonuses. “In no case can more be offered,” the GSA compensation and benefits website reads.
28-year-old tech entrepreneur Nate Cavanaugh, who had served as an internal role as part of Doge’s work at the agency, interviewed GSA employees, and was listed as paying more than $120,500 a year. According to Doge’s official website, the average GSA employee earned $128,565 and worked at the agency for 13 years.
When Elon Musk began recruiting Doge in November, he described the work as “boring” and noted “zero compensation.” Wired previously reported that Doge recruitment relies in part on a team of engineers associated with Peter Thiel and is conducted on platforms like Discord.
Since Trump took office in January, Doge has overseen active layoffs within the GSA, including the recent elimination of the 18F, an agency dedicated to technical efficiency. It also has a plan to sell more than 500 government buildings.
Although Musk described Doge as “maximum transparency”, it did not make its expenditure or wages public. According to a recent report by ProPublica, Doge’s funding has grown to about $40 million as of February 20. The White House did not answer questions about the salary range of Doge employees, or how to allocate budgets to pay their salaries.
Some Doge team members, including Musk, have been designated as “special government employees”, and the position is limited to a 130-day working period. These positions can be paid or free; SGE’s salary is higher than a certain grade and a financial disclosure form must be submitted, but the volunteers do not. This type of employee does not have the same rules as a typical federal worker. They are allowed to continue drawing external salaries, without the need to disclose conflicts of interest in some cases. Other notable SGE staff associated with Doge include senior assistant Katie Miller, who continues her previous public relations work. According to the Wall Street Journal, her company’s clients include Apple and Saudi-funded golf leagues.
