Want a Job That Pays $200,000? See How Much the Biggest Companies Pay
Summary
- Most S&P 500 companies said their median worker was paid more in 2022, and about 100 of them said pay rose at least 10%
In a year marked by tech layoffs and high inflation, competition for workers helped to lift paydays at most S&P 500 companies for the second straight year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Compensation for the median worker at 278 companies in the S&P 500 index was higher in 2022 than in the year before, according to the Journal’s analysis of data collected by MyLogIQ. About 100 of the companies said their median worker’s pay rose 10% or more, roughly the same number as in 2021.
Vici Properties, a real-estate investment trust with a portfolio of casinos and hotels, had the highest-paid median worker, at nearly $415,000 annually. The company based its calculation on 22 employees, since the tens of thousands of hourly workers at its properties are employed by Caesars Entertainment or other companies. The median worker at Caesars was paid around $36,000 in 2022.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms had the next-highest-paid median worker at almost $300,000, while Google parent Alphabet—which has the highest-paid CEO in the S&P 500—slipped to third after topping the list last year. Both technology giants have announced plans to slash jobs this year: Meta has laid off more than 21,000 workers, while Alphabet said it would cut roughly 12,000 jobs.
The median employee’s pay at Alphabet dropped 5% to about $280,000. An Alphabet spokeswoman said the majority of Google staff received a compensation increase in the 2023 planning cycle and the median figure reflects a mix of roles, locations and new hires. Vici, Caesars and Meta didn’t respond or had no comment beyond their filings.
Despite the pullback by tech giants and other white-collar layoffs, many small and large employers have been hiring at a rapid clip this spring, keeping the U.S. unemployment rate near historic lows.
The S&P 500 didn’t see major shifts in median pay from 2021 to 2022, according to The Journal’s analysis. In both years, similar numbers of companies reported paying their median workers more than $200,000, more than $100,000 and under $50,000.
Pay Above $100,000
Overall, slightly more than a third of the roughly 450 companies in the Journal’s 2022 analysis said their median worker was paid at least $100,000, a percentage that was little changed from 2021. The list includes tech giants, biotech companies and REITs like Vici with small, mostly white-collar workforces.
Energy companies, which recorded the biggest shareholder gains in the S&P 500 in 2022, made up five of the top 20 companies with the highest-paid median workers. In 2021, three energy companies had a place among the top 20.
The oil patch was led in 2022 by Valero Energy, where the median worker got about $209,000, up 6% from 2021. That was nearly as much as the median worker at Netflix, who took home roughly $218,000 last year, up 8% from 2021.
Valero and Netflix had no comment beyond their securities disclosures. On its website, Netflix says it seeks to pay workers the most they could make at similar jobs elsewhere in the same region.
Pay Below $50,000
The number of companies that paid their median worker $50,000 or less was also little changed at around 100. That list includes retailers, restaurant chains, cruise operators and other businesses with large numbers of hourly or part-time workers.
Auto-parts supplier Aptiv once again had the lowest-paid median worker in the S&P 500. A full-time factory worker in Mexico earned about $8,100 last year, up 10% from 2021. Aptiv said in its securities filing that in Mexico, “competitive wages vary greatly from standard U.S. hourly rates." Aptiv had no comment beyond its filings.
At Walmart, the largest private employer in the U.S., the median worker was paid about $27,000, up 7% from 2021. The company, like many retailers, raised pay during the pandemic and announced in January that it would increase its starting U.S. hourly wages to $14 from $12. That change brought the average U.S. hourly wage to $17.50, a Walmart spokesman said.
Companies are required to disclose total compensation for their median employee worldwide—calculated the same way companies must calculate CEO pay for disclosure—but they have some latitude in how they identify their median worker.
