While the tech industry suffered layoffs last year, many also raised compensation for the remaining employees, making it more difficult for smaller companies to compete.
Key Details
- While many businesses had to take cost-cutting measures last year, many S&P 500 companies increased their employees’ salaries.
- Around 278 S&P 500 companies report that their median pay rate in 2022 was higher than in 2021, Inc. reports.
- Of those companies, 100 increased salaries by 10% or higher.
- Many pay raises are due to increased inflation and higher living costs, but some seek to recruit better talent.
- Higher salaries are good for employees, but for smaller tech companies, finding talented workers will be even more difficult.
Why it’s news
Finding talent in the tech market is already difficult for startups and smaller tech companies. Competing with names like Apple, Microsoft, or Meta is difficult. Lesser-known companies already had trouble competing with big-tech salaries, but that problem may worsen.
Vici Properties is the highest-paying S&P 500 company, with a median annual salary of $414,000 in 2022. However, those numbers can be misleading since Vici is a real-estate investment trust with just 23 employees. Many of these workers are real-estate and finance experts, Inc. reports.
After Vici, Meta Platforms is the next highest-paying company on the list. The Facebook parent company has a median pay of $296,320, an increase from its rate of $292,785 last year. Meta has also laid off thousands of employees at the beginning of this year and end of last year.
Google’s parent company Alphabet pays slightly less, with a median rate of $279,802. Unlike some of its competitors, this rate is actually less than Alphabet’s media rate from 2021, which was $295,884. In 2021, Alphabet was the highest-paying company on the list, Inc. reports.
There were two notable changes to the list this year. First, Netflix made the list of the highest-paying companies for the first time. The streaming service offers a median salary of $218,400.
Twitter has fallen off the list this year. With multiple rounds of layoffs and severe budget cuts, Twitter’s median salary has likely declined. However, now that the company has been taken private, it no longer has to report its salaries, Inc. reports.
Here is the list of the top 10 companies with the highest median salaries:
- Vici Properties: $414,000
- Meta Platforms: $296,320
- Alphabet: $279,802
- Etsy: $248,232
- Incyte: $247,678
- Gilead Sciences: $242,033
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals: $238,818
- ServiceNow: $221,433
- Netflix: $218,400
- Valero Energy: $209,277
