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What Apple, Google and other Big Tech companies are paying, based on new salary transparency data

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A signage is displayed outside Google's new Bay View campus on June 16, 2022 in Mountain View, California.
Zhang Yi | VCG | Getty Images

It just got a lot easier to see how much some of the biggest tech companies in the world pay, thanks to a rollout of new salary transparency laws across the country.

As of Jan. 1, California and Washington joined New York City and Colorado in legally requiring employers to post salary ranges on their job ads.

California's pay range law is especially notable: It's home to 19 million workers and more than 20% of Fortune 500 companies, particularly tech giants like Apple, Google and Meta.

In addition to a range of job sites, workers in these areas, or anyone who's curious, can find aggregated data for tech companies and jobs on Comprehensive.io, a new website from Roger Lee, the creator of the Layoffs.fyi tracker. Data is based on job posts from over 700 of the top tech companies and startups, accounting for more than 53,000 active listings.

Here's what some of the biggest and buzziest tech companies are paying for current job openings in California, Washington, New York City and remote roles, based on Comprehensive.io data:

  • Amazon: Director of engineering, $220,000 to $298,000
  • Apple: iOS engineering manager, $229,000 to $378,000
  • Google: VP of engineering, $550,000
  • Microsoft: Content design director, $259,000 to $277,000
  • Meta: Associate general counsel, $190,000 to $256,000
  • Cisco: Director of UX research, $314,000
  • Twitter: Payroll and equity lead, $162,000 to $226,000

And by job title, here's the average pay for some common tech roles:

  • Software engineer: $132,000 to $200,000
  • Product manager: $130,000 to $197,000
  • Account executive: $111,000 to $147,000
  • Product designer: $123,000 to $188,000
  • Data scientist: $154,000 to $212,000
  • HR business partner: $92,000 to $139,000
  • Office manager: $71,000 to $76,000

It's worth noting that some pay ranges cover just base salary while others include total compensation, like bonuses or equity, which are big draws for tech jobs and can ultimately boost a worker's total compensation package by six-figure, if not million-dollar, sums.

For example, Netflix says their publicly listed ranges are based on total compensation (so base salary plus all the extras), and one job posting for a senior software engineer says the "overall market range for this role is typically $90,000 - $900,000."

Similar to public criticism of New York City's rollout, some extremely wide ranges are calling into question whether employers are posting pay bands in good faith and in the spirit of the law's aim, which is to be transparent and help close wage gaps.

For example, one Tesla job posting for a program manager says expected compensation is "$54,400 - $266,400/annual salary + cash and stock awards + benefits."

Netflix and Tesla didn't respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.

A few notable companies didn't immediately update their job ads to include salary ranges, including Amazon, Adobe and Stripe — as of early Jan. 6, each employer had some job postings up that didn't include pay information.

When asked for comment, a representative for Amazon says the company is "committed to pay equity, and will comply with the new laws"; Adobe updated all U.S. listings to include pay by Friday afternoon; and Stripe says it will update all U.S. listings to include pay by next week.

As of this week, Comprehensive.io says 39% of tech companies are complying with California's new salary range law. In New York City, which rolled out its legislation on Nov. 1, 63% of tech companies are complying.

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