Some staffers at Elon Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity are drawing sturdy taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal companies they’re slashing and burning, WIRED has realized.
Jeremy Lewin, one of many DOGE staff tasked with dismantling USAID, who has additionally performed a task in DOGE’s incursions into the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the Client Monetary Safety Bureau, is listed as making simply over $167,000 yearly, WIRED has confirmed. Lewin is assigned to the Workplace of the Administrator inside the Common Companies Administration.
Kyle Schutt, a software program engineer on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, is listed as drawing a wage of $195,200 via GSA, the place he’s assigned to the Workplace of the Deputy Administrator. That’s the maximum amount that any “Common Schedule” federal worker could make yearly, together with bonuses. “You can’t be provided extra below any circumstances,” the GSA compensation and advantages web site reads.
Nate Cavanaugh, a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur who has taken a visual inside function interviewing GSA employees as a part of DOGE’s work on the company, is listed as being paid simply over $120,500 per yr. In accordance with DOGE’s official website, the typical GSA worker makes $128,565 and has labored on the company for 13 years.
When Elon Musk began recruiting for DOGE again in November, he described the work as “tedious” and famous that “compensation is zero.” WIRED beforehand reported that the DOGE recruitment effort relied partially on a staff of engineers related to Peter Thiel, and was carried out on platforms like Discord.
Since Trump took workplace in January, DOGE has overseen aggressive layoffs inside the GSA, together with the recent elimination of 18F, the company’s unit devoted to know-how effectivity. It additionally developed a plan to unload greater than 500 authorities buildings.
Though Musk has described DOGE as “most clear,” it has not made its spending or wage ranges publicly accessible. Funding for DOGE had grown to round $40 million as of February 20, in accordance with a latest ProPublica report. The White Home didn’t reply to questions in regards to the wage ranges for DOGE staff, or how the finances is allotted to pay them.
Some DOGE staff members, together with Musk, are designated as “Particular Authorities Staff,” an advisory function restricted to a 130-day work interval. These positions will be paid or unpaid; SGEs drawing salaries above a sure grade have to file monetary disclosure varieties, however the volunteer staff don’t. Such a worker will not be beholden to the identical guidelines as typical federal staff; they’re allowed to maintain drawing exterior salaries, and in some instances don’t have to disclose conflicts of curiosity. Different distinguished SGE staffers related to DOGE embrace prime aide Katie Miller, who has continued her prior public relations work. Her agency’s shoppers embrace Apple and a Saudi-funded golf league, according to the Wall Road Journal.