+

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.

Close
HomeQuizzoneWhatsappShare Flash Reads
 

The highest-earning Googlers are so well paid it would take decades for ordinary people to catch up — but some of them say they should earn more

Jul 22, 2023, 00:59 IST
Business Insider
A growing number of Google's employees said they didn't think their pay was fair. The average American worker might feel the same way.Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
  • A spreadsheet showing what thousands of Google employees make has come to light for all to see.
  • The best paid are software engineers, and the highest level ones can take home nearly $1 million in total compensation.
Advertisement

We all know Google pays well, which may be why it has a reputation for being so hard to get a job there.

Now, thanks to a spreadsheet obtained by Insider's Rosalie Chan, Madison Hoff, and Hugh Langley, we know exactly how much its employees are taking home.

The TL;DR is that Googlers can expect to be paid pretty well.

Yet the company's annual "Googlegeist" survey for 2022 indicated that just 60% of workers surveyed felt their pay was "fair and equitable," down from 66% in 2021.

For some of these salaries, that might feel understandable.

Advertisement

Someone working in cloud sales for example could have a base salary of $50,000, although that ranges up to $302,000. A job in technical operations starts at $47,000, while the minimum base salary for an admin assistant is $67,509.

Per some very back-of-the-envelope math, these kinds of lower-tier salaries hover around US national median earnings. A like-for-like comparison is difficult, given Google's total compensation figures can include bonus and equity, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the median US wage is $1,100 a week, equating roughly to $57,200 a year. In 2021, real median household income was $70,784, per census data.

But many Googlers earn far above this. The median total compensation for a Google employee in 2022 was $279,802. The highest-paid software engineers can make up to $718,000 a year in base salary, although most reported making between $100,000 to $375,000 in base salary. They can also receive bonuses of up to $605,000. This would put them in the top 1% of earners in the country.

According to the leaked data, the highest paid software engineers had a total compensation package of over nearly $1 million when factoring in equity and bonuses.

Continuing our rudimentary math, which doesn't account for taxes, someone earning the median average US salary would have to work for several decades before saving what a top Googler could theoretically earn in a year.

Advertisement

One has to wonder what Googlers, if surveyed again, really think "fair and equitable" pay is.

You are subscribed to notifications!
Looks like you've blocked notifications!
Next Article