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Apple losing engineers due to low salaries? Not so fast

A post on Slashdot by Oren Hurvitz yesterday highlights a Glassdoor analysis, claiming engineers at Apple have significantly lower annual salaries than their Silicon Valley (and Redmond) peers:

  • Apple: $89,000
  • Yahoo!: $105,375
  • Microsoft: $105,642
  • Google: $112,573

The post asks, "Will Apple have to raise salaries to match the market rate, or face defections?"

Cnet's Matt Asay says, essentially, "nah." Apple's high stock price and options benefits are likely a reason many engineers are staying. Plus, he asks, "where are these developers going to go?" The coming [staying? already-here? -- ed.] recession and a sagging employment market aren't going to make it easy for engineers to find higher-paid jobs elsewhere in the Valley.

On the other hand, Hurvitz notes on his blog that when squared with the company's net income, Apple's engineers are getting the short end of the stick, since their low salaries made a large difference in Apple's bottom line.

Even so, Asay says, "Apple has time to figure this out and may not need to do anything."



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Apple Corporate

A post on Slashdot by Oren Hurvitz yesterday highlights a Glassdoor analysis, claiming engineers at Apple have significantly lower annual...
 

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Rhywun

I live in NYC where I know I could be making much more than I do now. The fact is, I am reasonably happy at the company I work for, and I've heard enough horror stories about companies that do pay more, that I'm just not interested in looking for higher pay at a different company right now. There's much more to a job than just compensation.

As for Apple - I couldn't care less if they're over- or under-compensated, as long as the software continues to reflect the care that's evidently put into it.

June 18 2008 at 10:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Rhywun's comment
John

Interesting mentality. "As long as the product's good, the employees don't really matter."

June 19 2008 at 9:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rhywun

Unless you assume the employees are incapable of taking care of themselves, yes, they don't matter to me. Why should they?

June 19 2008 at 6:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason

I can earn that and much more in Atlanta where I live, and the cost of living is much, much lower. I can actually own a house! The down side is that I have to do boring engineering work for boring companies. Going to a job that I like and making products that I'd actually be proud of would certainly be worth a little cut in pay.

June 18 2008 at 3:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Benjamin

Does the salary average for Apple include the retail employees? I bet they would skew the average down pretty hard.

June 18 2008 at 2:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fritz Laurel

Having interviewed at Apple several times (and turning down all offers), my opinion is that it is not a good place to work. It is a highly political and toxic work environment.

I think I remember a quote from that documentary that's going around now where a guy says something to the effect of "it's a blood bath in here. You don't want to know how we create these products..."

June 18 2008 at 2:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Fritz Laurel's comment
Sir. Poopy Pants

"It's people. The iPhone is made out of people. They're making our iPhones out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for iProducts. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!"

June 18 2008 at 4:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alansky

Given the astronomical rise in Apple's share price over the last couple of years, I seriously doubt that any Apple engineers are crying about their "inadequate" compensation! Apple employees who manage their stock options wisely and take advantage of the employee stock purchase program are almost certainly doing very well indeed.

June 18 2008 at 2:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mark

First, this is a pathetic study that only has 10 respondents from Google. He never says how many responded from Apple: which probably means only one.

Boo hoo, to some poor college grad (who has at least a B.S.) working at Apple for a paltry $89,000 in this economy. Be lucky you have a job. I'll trade you my unemployment for your truly massive salary.

June 18 2008 at 2:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mark's comment
AirBlock

Cost of living is where it really hurts. According to cost of living calculations (from http://www.bestplaces.net/) an $89,000 in San Jose is $51,215 in Dallas, TX (another tech-center). Not a bad salary, but still not nearly as impressive.

June 18 2008 at 4:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
thierry

I guess it's because they have to pay the interns :)
My friend in France got a 3 month internship at Cupertino, paid about 6000$/month + accomodation + airplane ticket + visa (visa costs about 1000$)

June 18 2008 at 1:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin

As a fellow silicon valley tech company employees, I know that almost all tech companies here do their compensation with stock options + salary. I'd rather have $20k less in salary and have apple stock options than $20k more and have yahoo stock options...

You cant really do an apples to apples comparison

June 18 2008 at 1:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Kevin's comment
Tristan OTierney

That would be a great argument, except Apple almost never gives options to new hires.

June 18 2008 at 2:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Thayne Miller

You're dead wrong. This article is way off.

June 19 2008 at 12:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dwayne

what is this "loving what you do" everyone is talking about? you mean..wait a minute...i can ENJOY my job?

June 18 2008 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

$100K probably doesn't go very far in Silicon Valley.

June 18 2008 at 12:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Galley's comment
Brandon Martinez

You know, I was thinking that as well. Around where I live (West Michigan Area), that would be considered "very, very well off" (sadly). Over there, probably not so much.

June 18 2008 at 1:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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