Apple pays its employees less, but offers them something more. Amazon, for its part, has a policy that causes its employees to see their remuneration vary constantly. Above them, Google would be the most “balanced”.
The data from the Blind forum offers enough to draw a complete balance sheet of the remuneration of a company, and in particular of the American big techs which compete for the best engineers via aggressive remuneration policies, bonuses, shares in the company and parallel services enabling them to afford an excellent quality of life.
But contrary to what one might think, each of these companies reasons differently. Compensation based on experience and position is more or less consistent, fair and subject to change. Each company is thus distinguished with advantages and disadvantages.
Remuneration: the differences among big tech in 2023
In a new assessment of big tech compensation between January 2022 and August 2023, Blind concluded that Apple paid its employees less well, in the same way as Microsoft, compared to Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and Google. On the other hand, Apple offers according to the platform a remuneration “consistent and fair”.
Microsoft would offer a more detailed grid for each job, but that the total compensation would never be better than that of the competition before one of the highest levels of experience and place in the hierarchy. As we can see on the graph proposed by Blind, the salary grid according to the level of position is very compact with positions that share the same remuneration.
At Meta, there is a gap between the pay level of an IC6 position and that of an IC5 position. The difference is so large that a gap of $25,000 per year exists between the lowest salary in IC6 compared to the highest salary in IC5. For a position at Meta level IC6, the level of responsibility is also greater with the management of a team between 20 and 100 people.
For the highest salaries, you either have to rely on Meta or Amazon. For the Seattle company founded by Jeff Bezos and that of Mark Zuckerberg in San Francisco, total compensation can reach 850,000 dollars a year. That said, at Amazon, Blind explains that compensation can constantly change.

Google is more balanced between consistency, accuracy and level of compensation. Blind underlined an interesting point: a lower position can never earn more than a higher position, as no level overlaps another. As for remuneration in terms of experience, the levels are more collected on top of each other. The reflection of a faster progression at Google than at Amazon.
The interest of Blind and its data
Less known in France than in the United States, Blind is a platform on which the authors of posts remain anonymous, enough to be able to post messages concerning the direction and strategic choices of their company, and for employers to take the temperature of concerns. time to improve.
Of course, salaries are an important part of the publications, but Blind is also known for having helped to highlight allegations of sexual harassment at Uber, working conditions at Amazon or the diversity policy at Google.
Source :
Blind