Here Are the 25 Highest Paying Companies in America

By Chris MorrisFormer Contributing Writer
Chris MorrisFormer Contributing Writer

    Chris Morris is a former contributing writer at Fortune, covering everything from general business news to the video game and theme park industries.

    Cybersecurity expertise might be the key to a generous salary, according to a new ranking of company salaries.

    Palo Alto Networks tops a list of the 25 highest paying companies in America from career site Glassdoor, coming in with a median salary of $170,929. That puts it ahead of Nvidia, where the average employee takes home $170,068 per year.

    Here’s how the rest of the Top 10 shakes out, with median total salaries listed.

    1. Palo Alto Networks: $170,929
    2. Nvidia: $170,068
    3. Twitter: $162,852
    4. Gilead Sciences: $162,210
    5. Google: $161,254
    6. VMware: $158,063
    7. LinkedIn: $157,402
    8. Facebook: $152,962
    9. Salesforce: $150,379
    10. Microsoft: $148,068

    (See the complete list on Glassdoor.)

    Tech companies dominate the list and many are based in the San Francisco Bay area, which could be part of the reason they’re as high as they are. Real estate prices in that region are sky high and competition for qualified workers is intense.

    Despite the company payrolls, the highest paying job in America isn’t in the tech field. Health care dominates the top five.

    Glassdoor says physicians earn the most, with a median base salary of $193,415. (That’s down slightly from last year.) Pharmacy managers come in second, earning $144,768 per year. They’re followed by dentists ($142,478) and Pharmacists ($126,438).

    Related: The 100 Best Companies to Work For 2019 List

    While the survey (compiled from user reported salaries, which exclude C-level jobs) focuses on pay, Glassdoor, which puts out the list each year, says increasingly, that’s not the most important thing to prospective employees.

    “Company culture and values, trust in senior leadership and career opportunities matter most when it comes to keeping employees satisfied in their jobs,” the site said. “So, while salary is a factor to consider when determining where to work, it shouldn’t be the only information used to make that important decision.”

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