Elon Musk Makes $37K A Year (Which He Doesn't Even Cash!)

According to a recent Schedule 14A SEC filing, Tesla Motors Inc’s TSLA CEO Elon Musk makes barely $37,440 per year.

This is almost 1/10^th of what the company’s CFO Deepak Ahuja earns from his executive activities in the company ($338,000 per year), and considerably less than other executives in the company, like Jeffrey B. Straubel, Jerome Guillen and Greg Reichow, all of which make more than $249,000 a year -- each.

The filing explains that “Mr. Musk’s salary is based on minimum wage requirements under California law and he is subject to income taxes based on such base salary.” The form adds: “Mr. Musk, however, has never accepted and currently does not accept his salary. Under California law, Mr. Musk is entitled to the portion of the base salary that he does not receive each year.”

Of course, we are speaking about Mr. Musk’s cash salary. The CEO does not receive his cash salary, but does own Tesla’s stock and options, from which he does take considerable gains.

While Musk’s salary does not seem small for most people (it translates in more than $3,000 a month), it is substantially smaller than what most CEOs around the world make. Let’s take a look at CEO pay in the auto industry:

• General Motors Company’s GM CEO Mary Barra’s pay surpassed $14 million in 2014, although just $1.6 million corresponded to her a direct salary. In that same year, Musk made $33,280.
• Ford Motor Company’s F Mark Fields received an approximate salary of $1.75 million in 2014.
• Toyota Motor Corp (ADR)’s TM Akio Toyoda made a $1.9 million salary in 2012.
• Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR)’s HMC Takanobu Ito earned slightly less than $1 million last year.
• Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s FCAU Sergio Marchionne made roughly $3 million in 2014, only from his salary. His total compensation reached approximately $38 million.

On the opposite sidewalk, some other CEOs also take very low pays, when compared to their peers. This is the case of Facebook Inc’s FBMark Zuckerberg, who makes about $600K, and famed investor Carl Icahn, amongst several others who earn $1 a year.