Where Big Tech pays the most: Blind’s study

Google and Meta pay their software engineers more than their Big Tech counterparts, according to new data from the anonymous tech forum Blind.

Apple and Microsoft, on the other hand, pay their entry-level engineers the least, though compensation for senior professionals tends to become more comparable. At Amazon, promotions can take longer than at other companies, and the pay range for engineers there is the widest.

The data is based on Blind user reports from last January through this month. While public companies are required to report the average annual compensation of all their employees compared to their CEO’s salary, data on pay levels is kept under tight wraps unless you’re applying for a specific position. Blind is an anonymous platform, but it requires people to confirm where they work using their work email.

Here’s an interesting chart illustrating the results recently published by Blind:

Some more interesting facts from Blind:

• Promotions might take longer at Amazon. Amazon also has wide pay bands for engineers, so total compensation can vary heavily.
• Apple’s total compensation might be less competitive than its peers, but their job levels and pay bands are consistent and fair.
• Google has one of the most balanced or consistent pay bands among Big Tech companies. This means it’s rare for someone at a lower job level to get paid more than someone at a higher level.
• Meta engineers appear to level up the fastest and have some of the highest pay.
• Microsoft has many job levels for software engineers, which might give the company more flexibility to hand out more promotions. However, their total compensation is lower than their peers across the board up until staff software engineer.