With nearly 4.6 million Americans officially on the unemployed list, it would seem that having a job — any job — might make the company that employs you the best company in the world to work for. Still, the grass is always greener somewhere else, and Fortune magazine points out the most verdant pastures.
No. 1 on the magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for is SAS, a privately-held software company based in North Carolina. Numbers two and three are also privately-held: Edward Jones, a brokerage, and Wegmans Food Markets. The fourth-best company to work for is Google (GOOG), which is joined in the top ten by just three other publicly traded companies: DreamWorks Animation SKG (DWA), NetApp (NTAP) and Qualcomm (QCOM).
Other large public companies in Fortune’s top 25 are Cisco (CSCO), Devon Energy (DVN), Whole Foods (WFMI), NuStar Energy (NU) and Goldman Sachs (GS). Among large companies, the list includes Microsoft (MSFT) at number 51, Monsanto (MON) at number 59, American Express (AXP) at number 73, Federal Express (FDX) at number 91, Starbucks (SBUX) at number 93, and Intel (INTC) at number 98.
High pay plays an important role in keeping people happy, but it’s not everything. Google appears not to have participated in Fortune’s survey, because there is no detailed information from the company. The best-paid employees work at Salesforce.com (CRM), where a senior account executive (the most common job title at the company) earns nearly $250,000 annually. Engineers at Devon earn more than $187,000 a year, and the leader in pay among reporting tech companies is Brocade (BRCD), where software engineers earn about $170,000 annually.
Fortune lists 14 companies that still pay 100% of employee health care premiums. Remember those days? Microsoft is one of these, as are EOG Resources (EOG) and Qualcomm. These health plans would probably be considered among the “Cadillac” plans that would be taxed if the health care reform bill is passed.
Other job perks, such as on-site childcare, ability to telecommute and sabbaticals also figured into the rankings. Some unusual perks include Qualcomm’s on-site farmers market and executive pay limits at Whole Foods.
The importance of this list is more than just its amusement factor. Working for a great company is simply more rewarding. Some of these companies have had no layoffs, ever. They value employees as more than cogs in a big, money-making machine. And in these very tough times for so many Americans, they stand out by offering more than is required.
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