How much should the world's richest man get paid?

Elon Musk was the lowest-paid chief executive of an S&P 500 company last year. Tesla paid him $0.

- Theo Francis

It has been that way for several years amid a legal battle over a monster stock award in 2018. A court has twice thrown out Musk's pay package—calling the process of creating it flawed despite two votes of support from shareholders.

Now Tesla's business is struggling, Musk is fresh off his detour through U.S. politics, and the Tesla board is exploring a new compensation package for its longtime leader. It must answer a thorny question: How do you pay the world's richest man?

Pay for founder-CEOs varies widely: Taser maker Axon gave Rick Smith a $165 million stock award last year, making him the highest-paid CEO in The Wall Street Journal's annual ranking. Meta paid Mark Zuckerberg, its billionaire co-founder, $27 million last year, mostly for personal-security services. Michael Dell got $3.1 million, mostly cash, while Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett famously collects a modest salary and security benefits ($405,111) and gets no stock grants.

Even for other individuals in lofty positions, pay can vary wildly: President Trump makes $400,000 a year (plus a $50,000 tax-free expense allowance). The president of Harvard gets more than $1 million. Baseball's Juan Soto could make as much as $800 million over 15 years under his late-2024 contract with the New York Mets.

Tesla didn't respond to requests for comment. Here are three approaches to paying Musk:

Option 1: Make him show up and go big

Tesla's board should make it clear to Musk that he has to show up and do the job—and be serious about planning for an eventual replacement, said Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, a pay-consulting firm.

That could mean he has less time to spend on SpaceX, government work and his other ventures.