How Much Does Elon Musk Get Paid? – Legends Report

By Tom Hasker, Associate Partner & Mentorship Coach, Lighthouse International

So far, Elon Musk has revolutionised online banking, electric cars, the space transport industry, solar power and soon will be doing so with satellite based WiFi and high speed ‘rail’ with the ‘Hyperloop’! So if you knew someone who can create so much, then you might expect their pay to be in the hundreds of millions a month! In reality, it’s roughly what most Premier League footballers earn in a week!

According to the Tesla Motors proxy filing of 2015, CEO Elon Musk was paid the California minimum wage of $37,584;

“Our current compensation programs reflect our startup origins in that they consist primarily of salary and equity awards. Consistent with our historical compensation philosophy, we do not currently provide our senior executive officers with any form of a cash bonus program.”

Legends who are at the top of their game are doing it because they’re invested in what the company is about and the mission for that company – especially if they are the ones who founded it! It’s a clear message they are not coming to work just for the pay cheque. In Elon Musk’s case he wants to make the world a better place through the switch over to electric cars. Even when they do work for the big pay-off, it’s tied closely to the performance of the company over time, showing they are invested in their work and not in it to line their own pockets. This article from PayScale explains more:

“In other words, just like your favorite sports stars, Elon Musk is paid for performance. In this case, his compensation (in the form of options) depends on hitting milestones like increasing Tesla’s value by 28 percent to $43.2 billion and boosting the company’s production to 300,000 vehicles, as well as launching the Model 3.

He was given 10 years to reach these goals, from the time the stock plan was created in 2012, but has achieved more than half of them.”