Forbidden Fruit at Apple: High Developer Salaries

There's a site called Glassdoor.com, which lets people find out what their peers at other companies make if they willingly provide their own salary information - plus get ratings on and reviews of companies. What an instrument for corporate mischief, and showing that potential is the blog TechCrunch, which compared software engineer salaries and bonuses at Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple. Interestingly, Apple without a doubt - assuming that people are honest - had the lowest average compensation for programmers: $89,000, versus about $105,000 at Microsoft and Yahoo and just over $112,000 at Google. And then you get comments like the following about Google:

If you enjoy your individuality and time alone, Google is not the place for you (keep in mind I’m not an engineer). Google pushes a highly “googley” atmosphere, which is something akin to what the Brady Bunch would be like if they lived in communist Russia. . . . People are encouraged to have googley attitudes, wear plastic smiles, and not to question the infallible nature of the executive management group. . . . If you like feeling awkward during forced group activity, Google is your haven. It isn’t exactly “forced” (no guns), but if you don’t participate you become labeled as “ungoogley.” Once deemed “ungoogley”, you’re practically viewed as a rotten apple that threatens to spoil the bunch.

HR officials at most high tech companies must be shaking at the thought of what salary reviews and negotiations are going to be like in about two years.

Managers See Top Take-Home Pay in Surprising Places

Where do you think managers make the best money? The US? Germany? The UK? According to the Hay Group, a management consulting firm, if you take into account cost of living and taxes and look at the what the effective buying power is, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates top the list. There are seven European countries in the top 20 and the US at spot 24. According to the press release with the information:

“Companies are operating in an increasingly open and competitive global economy, and emerging markets are offering managers higher disposable incomes than established countries –which is making these locations an attractive prospect for management talent,” said Iain Fitzpatrick, Director Reward Information Services for Hay Group North America.

The company used its own proprietary data to make the comparisons. Here's the table of results:

Hay Group's Management Buying Power

Rank	Country	Disposable Income
1	Saudi Arabia	229,325
2	UAE	223,939
3	Hong Kong	203,947
4	Russia	157,348
5	Turkey	154,762
6	Mexico	152,283
7	Ukraine	149,118
8	Thailand	147,547
9	Singapore	142,655
10	Argentina	138,188
11	Poland	128,537
12	Spain	128,197
13	Switzerland	127,732
14	China	126,281
15	Greece	126,102
16	Malaysia	126,026
17	Brazil	123,766
18	Lithuania	122,941
19	Germany	122,427
20	Ireland	117,010
21	Portugal	116,678
22	Romania	115,280
23	Austria	112,906
24	United States	104,905
25	Netherlands	103,823
26	Australia	103,578
27	Japan	102,604
28	Italy	101,487
29	South Africa	100,257
30	New Zealand	100,136
31	France	98,117
32	South Korea	97,867
33	Latvia	97,409
34	Czech Republic	97,352
35	Egypt	97,001
36	India	92,750
37	Hungary	91,358
38	Belgium	89,632
39	Slovakia	86,632
40	United Kingdom	86,367
41	Denmark	82,697
42	Canada	81,613
43	Estonia	80,908
44	Norway	77,202
45	Sweden	75,581
46	Finland	74,038
47	Indonesia	71,839