From the Puget Sound Business Journal – thanks to Gordon G: The connection between high salaries and STEM backgrounds is undeniable.
Workers in science and tech fields are among the best compensated in Washington, according to a Business Journal analysis of financial filings by public companies.
At $198,658 for 2018, Seattle Genetics had the Puget Sound region’s highest median pay. That figure is almost 17 percent higher than the next-highest company, Microsoft, where the median employee earns $167,689 annually.
Public companies nationwide have disclosed median employee pay data for 2018 in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Not all the more than 70 public companies in Washington state have released those figures.
Some of these companies are also among the state’s largest employers. Microsoft and Amazon, for example, each have more than 50,000 workers statewide. Median pay figures for those companies, however, are companywide. For Amazon that means accounting for lower-wage warehouse jobs throughout the country.
Median pay at retail companies such as Nordstrom and Starbucks are lower — $34,454 and $12,754, respectively — and often reflect a large part-time workforce.
Conversely, some companies based outside of Washington — including Boeing, Google and Facebook — are not represented here but have a significant or growing presence in the state.
For example, Chicago-based Boeing employs about 70,000 people statewide and the median pay was $119,297. Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Facebook are rapidly expanding in the Puget Sound region, heightening the battle for tech talent. Google workers earned $246,804 last year, while Facebook paid $228,651.
Notes on methodology for median pay
- Median pay means half of the company’s employees make less, and half make more (not including the CEO).
- The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires many U.S. public companies to calculate and disclose median worker pay, and how that compares to the CEO’s compensation, in their annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- The value of restricted stock units and other benefits could be included in the median pay calculation at some companies.
- Part-time and temporary employees could be included in median pay calculation for some companies.