Elon Musk Responds: “I Haven’t Been Paid Since 2018”

Tesla investors have drawn a line. A group of pension funds holding nearly $3 billion worth of Tesla shares have sent a letter to Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm. Their demand: Elon Musk must work at least 40 hours a week at the company.

But Musk, who also leads several other companies, hit back with a strongly personal message: “I haven’t been paid since 2018.”

Technically, Tesla has paid Musk minimum wage — roughly $33,000 over the past seven years. However, he has declined to accept a regular salary. Instead, he was granted a historic $56 billion performance-based stock compensation plan, which was struck down earlier this year by a Delaware judge due to insufficient transparency in the process.

In their criticism, the investors point to two consecutive years of declining car sales at Tesla and argue that Musk should spend more time focused on the company. They consider it reasonable for the CEO of a publicly traded company to show up full-time.

But Musk disagrees. On the social media platform X, he simply replied “Indeed” to a user who pointed out the absurdity of imposing work hour requirements on someone who hasn’t been paid in years. The response was followed by a “sigh.”

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