The highest-paying company in the U.S. isn’t a household corporate name, but rather a technology provider that aims to help companies preserve theirs.
Cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks offers median total pay of nearly $171,000 a year, according to Glassdoor’s latest ranking of companies with the most generous compensation. That topped Silicon Valley royalty including Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as tech giants such as Microsoft.
To compile its list, the career services firm reviewed salaries reported by employees on its platform, factoring in not only base pay but also income such as commission, tips and bonuses.
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While Palo Alto Networks’ 7,000 employees and $2.9 billion in annual revenue make it small compared to players like Facebook and Google, the Santa Clara, California security firm is clearly in a growth industry — protecting organizations from hackers, malware and other cyberthreats that can wreak havoc. The company is also pushing into cloud services, another burgeoning area.
That has put Palo Alto Networks, fueled by swift growth in recent years, in hiring mode, with the company listing some 800 openings on Glassdoor for engineering, sales and other roles.
“There is fierce competition among tech employers to hire and retain really talented individuals and especially for Palo Alto Networks, they’re looking for really high-caliber talent to help them achieve their important goals,” Amanda Stansell, senior research analyst at Glassdoor, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Not surprisingly, that demand for top talent means tech players dominate the list of best-paying companies — 20 of the top 25 companies on Glassdoor’s tally are in tech. The highest-ranking non-tech company is management consulting firm McKinsey, whose $145,367 in median annual comp puts it at No. 13.
Not that money is the only thing, of course. Stansell said that employees cite factors such as company culture, leadership quality and career advancement opportunities as more important than pay in choosing where to work.
The top 25 highest-paying companies this year, according to Glassdoor:
- Palo Alto Networks ($170,929)
- Nvidia ($170,068)
- Twitter ($162,852)
- Gilead Sciences ($162,210)
- Google ($161,254)
- VMware ($158,063)
- LinkedIn ($157,402)
- Facebook ($152,962)
- Salesforce ($150,379)
- Microsoft ($148,068)
- Juniper Networks ($146,781)
- ServiceNow ($145,529)
- McKinsey & Co. ($145,367)
- PlayStation ($143,229)
- Autodesk ($142,083)
- Workday ($141,893)
- Synopsys ($140,577)
- eBay ($140,056)
- BNP Paribas ($140,056)
- Qualcomm ($139,754)
- Tableau Software ($138,043)
- Western Digital ($137,527)
- Veritas ($137,244)
- Adobe ($135,027)
- Genentech ($133,605)
