--- title: This Is How Much Eric Cantor Is Getting Paid Now description: The former House Majority Leader will get $3.4 million in his first 16 months at new employer Moelis canonical: https://time.com/3257774/eric-cantor-moelis-new-job/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-02T19:08:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:58:03.780Z article:section: Politics og:title: This Is How Much Eric Cantor Is Getting Paid Now og:description: The former House Majority Leader will get $3.4 million in his first 16 months at new employer Moelis og:url: https://time.com/3257774/eric-cantor-moelis-new-job/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4239210f8c5c85d6/6986a1b0e8524b92f5604825/eric-cantor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3976 og:image:height: 2237 og:image:alt: Eric Cantor delivers a speech in Richmond, Va. on June 10, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is How Much Eric Cantor Is Getting Paid Now twitter:description: The former House Majority Leader will get $3.4 million in his first 16 months at new employer Moelis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4239210f8c5c85d6/6986a1b0e8524b92f5604825/eric-cantor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Eric Cantor's Huge Pay Day > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Sep 2, 2014 7:08 PM UTC  Eric Cantor delivers a speech in Richmond, Va. on June 10, 2014. Eric Cantor delivers a speech in Richmond, Va. on June 10, 2014. Steve Helber—AP by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Sep 2, 2014 7:08 PM UTC Nearly three months after a historic [primary defeat](http://time.com/2878248/eric-cantor-no-regrets-loss-lobbyist/), former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced he’ll [join](http://time.com/3256209/eric-cantor-moelis-company/) investment bank Moelis, and follow in the long tradition of lawmakers profiting on their knowledge of the regulatory and political landscape post-Congress. And boy did Cantor cash out. Cantor’s $3.4 million compensation package for the next year and four months puts his congressional salary into stark relief. Since he was elected Majority Leader in 2011, Cantor earned $193,400 a year, around $20,000 more annually than a rank-and-file member. But as Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Moelis, he will receive a $1.4 million signing bonus, $1.6 million in incentive compensation next year and a $400,000 base salary — plus reimbursement for the reasonable cost of a New York City apartment for his first 12 months, and a hotel equivalent rate thereafter. Cantor wasn’t doing too badly before he left Congress, of course, with the Center for Responsive Politics estimating his net worth in 2012 at around [$9.3 million](http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/summary.php?year=2012&cid=N00013131). But the move will certainly bump him into a higher category of wealth. That said, Cantor won’t be making as much as he might have as a lobbyist, as the seven figure salaries of some former congressmen can attest. Billy Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican congressman who retired in 2005, made $11.6 million in a single year in 2010 while helping to craft President Obama’s Affordable Care Act as leader of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, according to [Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-29/tauzin-s-11-6-million-made-him-highest-paid-health-law-lobbyist.html). Former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd makes nearly $3.3 million a year as the head of the Motion Picture Association of America. In 2011, former Oklahoma Rep. Steve Largent’s total compensation as CTIA-The Wireless Association’s top lobbyist was [reportedly](http://www.fiercecable.com/special-reports/special-report-highest-paid-execs-telecom-trade-associations) $2.7 million. But it’s hard to quibble with a signing bonus worth more than seven times your annual salary. The move to Wall Street wasn’t unexpected as Cantor, one of the Republican party’s most prolific fundraisers, had close ties to the financial services industry. Three of Cantor’s top campaign contributors during the most recent election cycle were investment firms Blackstone Group, Scoggin Capital Management and Goldman Sachs, according to the [Center for Responsive Politics](https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00013131&cycle=2014). Chris Jones, a managing partner of CapitalWorks, predicted to [TIME](http://time.com/2873621/eric-cantor-lobbyist/) in June that Cantor would take a “prominent role” at a major bank. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3257774/eric-cantor-moelis-new-job/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3257774/eric-cantor-moelis-new-job/"},"headline":"Eric Cantor's Huge Pay Day","datePublished":"2014-09-02T19:08:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:58:03.780Z","description":"The former House Majority Leader will get $3.4 million in his first 16 months at new employer Moelis","url":"https://time.com/3257774/eric-cantor-moelis-new-job/","keywords":["Congress","salary","bank","pay","Eric Cantor"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4239210f8c5c85d6/6986a1b0e8524b92f5604825/eric-cantor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4239210f8c5c85d6/6986a1b0e8524b92f5604825/eric-cantor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Eric Cantor delivers a speech in Richmond, Va. on June 10, 2014.","caption":"Eric Cantor delivers a speech in Richmond, Va. on June 10, 2014.","creditText":"Steve Helber—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3257774/eric-cantor-moelis-new-job/","name":"Eric Cantor's Huge Pay Day"}}]}] ```