Netflix, law firm Skadden Arps top the list
By Jacquelyn Smith and Mike Nudelman
Companies like Netflix and Google aren't just fun places to work. They're also two of the highest-paying employers in the US.
Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers community, just released a new report which identifies the 15 companies with the highest median total compensation - which includes base salary and other forms of income, such as commissions, tips, and bonuses - as reported by US-based employees on the Glassdoor website over the past year.
Turns out the average employee at the No. 1 company, New York-based law firm Skadden Arps rakes in over $180,00 a year. That's nearly four times what the average American earns.
"In the legal and consulting industries, high salaries are largely the result of what economists call 'barriers to entry,'" explains Glassdoor chief economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain. "Attorneys and top consultants have personal contacts, reputations, and specialized skills and knowledge. Many clients stay with the same attorney or consultant for decades at a time. As a result, these employees are even more valuable to their employers, pushing their salaries to sky-high levels, and making it tough for other people to compete for their jobs."
Here are the full results:
Tech companies, Chamberlain points out, dominate the list thanks to "shortages of the highest skilled employees needed to advance business into new realms." Booming demand for software engineers, database administrators, and data scientists has far outpaced the supply of these skilled, hard-to-find employees, he explains. "With tech companies scrambling to poach these valuable workers from competitors, a bidding war has pushed tech salaries to unprecedented heights in recent years."