A Claim Suggests Elon Musk's DOGE Salary Is $8 Million a Day — Is It True?

As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (ironically dubbed DOGE), Elon Musk is going to great lengths to reduce government spending and eliminate wasteful expenditures. In his efforts, Elon and his team at DOGE have begun making cuts or suspending work in various agencies. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is one that has already begun feeling DOGE's wrath.

With Elon so fired up about government spending, people are now turning the spotlight on him and his own DOGE salary. Because if agencies are getting suspended and layoffs are happening, folks want to make sure it's all being fairly distributed. Plus, as of this writing, Elon is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $384 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, so it’s not like he needs a big paycheck, right? Here’s how much his DOGE salary is estimated to be.

Elon Musk is reportedly earning $8 million a day as his DOGE salary, a figure revealed during DOGE’s very first oversight hearing.

During the hearing held on Feb. 12, 2025, Democrat Rep. Greg Casar of Texas dropped the bombshell, claiming Elon is collecting a whopping $8 million per day.

Greg revealed the figure after asking Mr. Talvoc, "Do you know how much a day Mr. Musk will receive from the federal government for his contracts?" to which Mr. Talvoc replied, "No." Greg then stated, "The answer is $8 million per day."

Greg then turned his attention to Ms. Royal, asking if she knew how much the average person in this country who survives on Social Security receives daily. He then proceeds to answer the question, revealing the average amount is $65 a day.

Now, while there’s been no official confirmation that Elon is actually collecting $8 million per day, that’s a bold claim to make in front of the entire DOGE oversight committee if it weren’t true. Now, Elon has been very vocal about his intentions, often giving fair warning about who he’s targeting next on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), so maybe he’ll clear the air on how much he’s actually getting paid. But wait, didn't Elon say he'd be working for DOGE for free?

In an X post from November 2024, Elon admitted that while working for DOGE would be "tedious work" that would cause him to make a lot of "enemies," he added that the "compensation is zero." He then joked, "What a great deal!"

So, there seems to be conflicting information about Elon’s DOGE salary — he claims he’s working for nothing, while Greg says he’s raking in $8 million a day. Regardless of what Elon is or isn’t making at DOGE, he’s doing just fine financially — unlike those who rely on government benefits that he and Donald Trump allegedly might soon be targeting, such as Social Security and Medicare.