Providing internet services via satellite to various countries outside the United States provided lucrative employment for the nine employees in Ireland of Elon Musk’s Starlink company, according to accounts just filed.
Dublin-based Starlink Internet Services Ltd, which sells its services to both the residential and business sectors, trebled its number of employees to nine in 2024. Between them, they were paid $1.63 million (€1.4 million) in wages and salaries – an average of just more than $181,000 (or €156,000).
Social welfare costs came to a mere $89,753 while pension costs amounted to just $902 during the year.
Good money for selling broadband services, although employees obviously have to make provision for their own retirement.
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The figure includes the salaries of directors, who are listed as Richard Jinu Lee (who lives in Los Angeles), Lauren Ashley Dreyer (with an address in Brownsville, Texas) and Louth-based Siobhan Brosnan.
By comparison, the three employees on the payroll in 2023 received a more modest $179,357 between them – an average of just under $60,000 each. Social welfare costs came to just $19,798 and there were no pension payments.
At another of Musk’s businesses here, Tesla Motors Ireland Ltd, latest accounts show the 38 sales, service and administration employees earned €1.94 million between them in 2023 – an average of €51,052.
That figure rises to just more than €65,000, when social welfare, pension and share-based payments (valued at an aggregate €298,385) are included.
Unfortunately, there is no window into how much staff at the Irish unit of Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) social media platform are paid these days since the company became unlimited, meaning it is no longer required to file detailed accounts for the operation here.
Of course, none of these salaries touch the sides when compared with Musk’s controversial 2018 compensation package, valued at over $50 billion.
