A recently concluded employee survey by Glassdoor revealed that Google is the best company in the U.S. in terms of compensation and benefits for its employees.
This comes as confirmation for Google, which was voted for the fifth straight year as the best U.S. company to work for in a survey by Fortune magazine last January.
Google scored a rounded-off rating of 4.4 for compensations and benefits in the survey, which was enough for the company to take the #1 spot. Costco is at #2 with 4.4, Facebook is #3 with 4.3, Adobe is #4 at 4.2 and Epic Systems is #5 at 4.2.
All of the companies in the top five are in the technology industry, except for Costo, which is the in retail industry.
Glassdoor used data that it collected from 23 million members as basis for the rankings through accomplished company review forms, with each company receiving reviews from at least 75 of its current or former employees within the past year.
Software engineers at Google enjoy average annual base compensation of US$128,000, compared to US$120,000, US$111,000 and US$105,000 that software engineers make at Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, respectively.
Google employees are given full access to facilities such as a gym, laundromat, billiards, and even pet boarding. Google also gives free meals all day to its staff, in addition to free bus transportation services, free electric car usage, very generous health care plans and so much more.
However, excellent perks mean that the company expects nothing less but the best from its employees.
"I've never met anybody at Google who actually took time off on weekends or on vacations," a former Google employee for eight years said in his review.
It might be a surprise to most to see Costco, a company that has many employees without college degrees, is right at the top with tech giants Google and Facebook. This is because their US$11.75 hourly wage is higher than the standard US$9 to US$11 rate paid by other retailers. Rivals Target and Wal-Mart scored 3.1 and 2.7, respectively. Costco also has excellent health benefits, a prescription drug plan, a vision plan for contact lenses and eyeglasses and a stock purchase plan, among others.
Glassdoor, founded six years ago at Sausalito, California, is ranking companies based on benefits and compensation for the first time this year. The company admits, however, that their ranking is not as comprehensive.
"Most of our content is in the tech and business/finance sectors," admits company spokesman Scott Dobroski. Companies that were left out of the ranking because too few employees filled out the survey include ExxonMobil, McDonald's and Sears.
