Cantor to cash in with $3.5 million from new job on Wall Street

September 2, 2014, 9:12 AM ET

SHARE:

MORE

EmailPrint

Getty Images

Eric Cantor

Talk about victory in defeat: Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will be pulling in about $3.5 million thanks to his new job with Wall Street investment bank Moelis & Co.  MC 

It’s a huge raise for the Virginia Republican, whose salary as majority leader was a lowly $193,400.

Cantor, whose Republican primary loss to little-known Dave Brat stunned Washington, will open an office for Moelis & Co. in the nation’s capital and also work out of its New York City office.

The details of Cantor’s pay package are in this filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cantor gets an annual base salary of $400,000. Since there are just four months remaining in the year, Cantor will likely get a third of that. But he’ll get plenty of extra compensation this year: the Virginian stands to receive an initial cash amount of $400,000, as well as $1 million in initial restricted stock units.

Then there’s next year. On top of his base salary, Cantor will get “minimum incentive compensation” of $1.2 million, plus $400,000 in restricted stock units. Added all up, that’s about $3.5 million for this year and next.

Cantor’s move provoked almost immediate criticism about revolving-door politics. In his most recent congressional campaign, Cantor raised nearly $785,000 from the securities and investment industry, more than any other industry. His biggest donor was Blackstone Group