Tesla’s Elon Musk paid salary in line with California minimum wage

The year 2014-15 was a big one for the California-based electric vehicle and now battery storage maker, Tesla. But for the salary of its founding CEO, Elon Musk, not so much.

Reports this week are putting Musk’s total compensation last year at $US37,584 – an amount roughly reflective of California’s minimum wage requirements, according to Wall Street Journal.

But as WSJ notes, Musk – who is the company’s biggest stockholder, with a stake currently worth around $9.5 billion – has never accepted his salary.

In 2012, he received 5.27 million stock options, which were intended to compensate him for 10 years, according to a filing at the time. As of December 31 2015, Musk owned about 37.2 million Tesla shares, a 26.5 per cent stake.

Tesla’s COO Jason Wheeler is, however, keeping things real, with a reported compensation valued at $US20.9 million, almost entirely from a new-hire stock-option grant.

And the company’s chief technology officer, JB Straubel, got $250,560 in salary, while Doug Field, Tesla’s vice president of engineering, received a $306,923 salary and $2,808,785 in stock awards, the company said in its proxy statement.

“Our current compensation programs reflect our startup origins in that they consist primarily of salary and equity awards. Consistent with our historical compensation philosophy, we do not currently provide our senior executive officers with any form of a cash bonus program,” the EV maker said.

Elon, meanwhile, is also the chairman of US solar leasing giant SolarCity and the founder and CEO of privately held SpaceX.