Google Inc, Facebook Inc and big-box retailer Costco Wholesale Co offer the best pay and benefit packages in the US, according to employee ratings compiled by the US job site Glassdoor.
Apart from Costco, whose generous social benefits stand out, four of the five top employers are high-tech firms, the survey said.
Top was Google, where a software engineer earns an average base salary of US$119,000 a year and where employees have free access to a gym, laundromat, billiards and pet boarding.
However, “I’ve never met anybody at Google who actually took time off on weekends or on vacations,” a former employee who worked there for eight years wrote.
Last week, the search engine giant overtook Apple Inc as the world’s top brand, with US$158.84 billion in value, market research agency Millward Brown said in its current 100 Top BrandZ report.
In the Glassdoor survey, No. 3 Facebook is hailed for the autonomy it grants to its workers. At the bottom of the list, in 25th, is eBay Inc, which employs more than 5,000 people.
At least 75 current or former employees of each firm responded to the survey.
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