DOGE Staffers Reportedly Draw Hefty Salaries Funded By Taxpayers While Elon Musk Pushes For 'Wasteful' Spending Cuts

Namrata Sen

March 7, 2025

Benzinga

Employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseen by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, are reportedly drawing substantial salaries while they are downsizing federal agencies.

What Happened: Several DOGE employees are receiving significant taxpayer-funded salaries, according to a recent WIRED report. Jeremy Lewin, involved in dismantling USAID through DOGE, earns over $167,000 annually, while Kyle Schutt, a DOGE software engineer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, draws a maximum federal employee salary of $195,200 annually, the report said.

Also, Nate Cavanaugh, a tech entrepreneur involved in DOGE’s work at the General Services Administration (GSA), reportedly earns just over $120,500 per year, slightly below the DOGE-determined average GSA employee salary of $128,565.

It has been reported that Elon Musk, who acts as an advisor to President Donald Trump, does not receive a salary for his involvement with DOGE.

Contrary to Musk’s initial claim that DOGE work would be “tedious” and “compensation is zero,” the department’s funding has escalated to nearly $40 million as of Feb 20, as per a report by ProPublica.

Benzinga was not independently able to verify the compensation mentioned in the Wired report, as the White House has yet to disclose the salary range of DOGE employees or details about the budget allocation to pay them. The White House did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

Why It Matters: The DOGE initiative has been a controversial topic since its inception. DOGE has played a crucial role in aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring efforts, leading to the closure of several government agencies and the substantial layoffs of federal employees, the most recent being the 18F tech support team. However, the department’s access to sensitive citizen data has sparked legal and ethical debates.

Though Musk is not drawing a salary for his DOGE activities, as per the Associated Press report, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are introducing resolutions urging the Trump administration to release documents and information regarding Musk's possible conflicts of interest and the dismissal of federal employees.

According to reports, the U.S. DOGE Service claimed a whopping $65 billion in savings. However, experts have called these claims “smoke and mirrors,” particularly amid a wave of resignations.

Furthermore, Musk’s proposal of a $5,000 refund for American taxpayers, funded by DOGE’s savings, has been met with skepticism. Despite Trump’s support for the idea, it faces significant hurdles, as Congress, which controls federal spending, is not on board.