The largest economy in the world has seen a healthy & vibrant labor market that has recovered well since the slump experienced post the financial crisis of 2008. Unemployment is at post-recession lows of 3.5%. Wage growth has seen an upward trajectory as well, with a 5.34% increase in August over the same period last year — wage growth in the United States has averaged 6.21% in the past 59 years (1960–2019).


The most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau put the median U.S household income at $ 61,937 — the highest level since 2007. The median income has been increasing steadily since 2013, although recent increases were smaller than the previous ones.

With the median income in mind, we have an interesting infographic (below, left) of how the highest paying salaries compare to it. The data for the chart came from Glassdoor’s 25 Highest Paying Companies in the United States. The crowdsourced data, which included base salary, commissions, tips, bonuses, etc. was based on the time period between Jul. 2018 — Jun. 2019.

The visualization charts the Top 25 companies with the highest salary on the far left as they decrease moving to the right. In order to avoid skewed statistics, the data does not include executive-level salaries.

Let’s review some of the takeaways from this report:

Companies belonging to the technology sector were the most prominent in the Top 25 median salaries. Consulting & finance companies like BNP Paribas and McKinsey & Company also scored the top laurels.

Another interesting statistic was that most of the top 25 companies were headquartered in the U.S tech powerhouse of Silicon Valley, California. Only 4 were out of California — McKinsey & Company(New York), Microsoft & Tableau software (Washington state) and the only overseas company was BNP Paribas (Paris, France)

Although the tech sector dominated the highest median salaries at the company level, the highest paying jobs in American were all from the healthcare sector, not technology.

❶ Physician — $193,4152
❷ Pharmacy Manager — $144,7683
❸ Dentist — $142,4784
❹ Pharmacist — $126,4385
❺ Enterprise Architect — $122,585

Now compare this to the Top 5 median salaries from our infographic.

❶ Palo Alto Networks — $170,929
❷ NVIDIA — $170,068
❸ Twitter — $162,852
❹ Gilead Sciences — $162,210
❺ Google — $161,254


Surprisingly though, some of the most profitable companies in the World like Apple & JP Morgan were not the highest paying.

The Glassdoor list consisted mostly of companies specializing in social media networking, cybersecurity, cloud computing & software. According to some estimates, there would be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021, driving up the median salaries even further

On the other hand, tech giants like Google, Facebook & others have come under regulatory scrutiny lately and people working here may face an uncertain future. Nevertheless, the list might look very different in the coming years as the economy, regulations & job market evolves.