Company Characteristics

THE BEST INDUSTRIES TO WORK FOR, in terms of salary, were search/social networking and banking/finance. If you are in search/social networking, you probably earn a whopping $15,193 more than someone with comparable experience and characteristics in other industries. In banking/finance, you can earn $7,043 more. There are a couple of other advantageous fields:

• Software (including SaaS, web, mobile): $2,142 better than average

• Publishing/media: $1,376 better than average

But you will be penalized for working in the following industries:

• Education: $8,608 worse than average

• Carriers/telecommunications: $1,547 worse than average

And think twice before becoming a consultant: they earn $8,448 less than average.

Company size had a major impact on salary, but not on a simple linear curve. It looks fairly simple, salary increasing with company size. But when we factor in all the other differences between employees, it looks like the best salaries are given out in firms of 1,001 to 2,500 employees, and the next best size is 101 to 500.

• 1 (4% of respondents): average salary $57,000

• 2 to 25 (22% of respondents): average salary $57,000

• 26 to 100 (17% of respondents): average salary $78,000

• 101 to 500 (18% of respondents): average salary $82,000

• 501 to 1,000 (8% of respondents): average salary $87,000

• 1,001 to 2,500 (8% of respondents): average salary $86,000

• 2,501 to 10,000 (11% of respondents): average salary $88,000

• 10,000 or more (12% of respondents): average salary $98,000

If the company is more than 20 years old, we saw a penalty of $2,197 for working there. Perhaps this is because people at such firms stay in one job longer, and don’t experience the salary boost that others get by moving to new firms.