DOGE employees drawing 'six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries' — while putting thousands out of work

05 March

After Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election and chose Elon Musk to run a new advisory group called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Tesla/SpaceX/X.com CEO claimed that working at DOGE would require altruistic motives. DOGE, Musk warned, would require a selfless commitment to cutting waste from the United States' federal government — not a desire for cushy, easy employment.

On November 14, 2024, Musk cryptically tweeted, "Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero. What a great deal!"

But according to Forbes' Beatrice Nolan, some DOGE employees are drawing "six-figure taxpayer-funded salaries" — while putting thousands of federal government employees out of work.

In an article published on March 5, Nolan — drawing in part on recent reporting from Wired — reports, "Musk had initially claimed positions within DOGE would be 'tedious work' where 'compensation is zero'…. While DOGE has aggressively downsized government offices, some of its own members are earning top-tier federal salaries, Wired reported."

Nolan continues, "Jeremy Lewin, a key figure in dismantling USAID and reshaping other agencies, makes over $167,000 per year, the report said — while Kyle Schutt, a software engineer working within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, takes home $195,200, per Wired, which is the federal pay ceiling. Others, including 28-year-old tech entrepreneur Nate Cavanaugh, also earn six-figure salaries."

Nolan notes that DOGE employees Luke Farritor, Edward Coristine and Derek Geissler "appear to be unpaid volunteers" but adds that "a full picture of the department's salaries has been difficult to establish."

"It was instrumental in shuttering various government agencies, including USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and has overseen the firing of thousands of federal employees," Nolan observes. "The department has also accessed sensitive citizen data within The Treasury and IRS, raising concerns from Democratic lawmakers and prompting legal challenges. It recently played a key role in shutting down 18F — a government tech unit focused on improving digital services — and has overseen mass layoffs within the General Services Administration (GSA)."

Read Fortune's' full article at this link.

From Your Site Articles