America's Highest Paying Companies

Credit card company Visa pays its full-time employees $107,000 per year on average. While the company is in the finance sector, many of the highest paid employees in its ranks have a technology background. After a string of high-profile cybersecurity breaches, securing online data has become an important facet of many online businesses. As by far the largest issuers of credit cards in the U.S., Visa has much more data they need to keep secure, and the company employs a number of highly-paid security analysts.

One of the few non-tech companies on this list, Chevron Corporation is among the largest energy providers in the country by market value. With oil exploration operations across several continents, Chevron employs petroleum, drilling, and mechanical engineers, as well as geologists and geophysicists. These positions often require advanced degrees, and workers with higher levels of education often command higher salaries.

Mobile game developer Zynga has created popular social games like Words With Friends and FarmVille. To develop these games, the company employs software engineers, operations managers, and game producers, as well as marketing directors and more. Like software engineers at many other companies, Zynga typically pays these workers well over $100,000 per year.

Adobe produces some of the most popular creative software available online, including Photoshop — which, according to the company, is used by over 90% of the world’s creative professionals — and After Effects. Adobe employs products, communications, and accounts managers, among others. Management positions at the company typically pay in excess of $100,000. In addition, the company also employs well-compensated software engineers and computer scientists who develop its software products.

PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California — a hub of the Silicon Valley region. While this means there is a wealth of experienced coders, programmers, and engineers in the area, it also means that PayPal likely has to offer relatively high salaries to attract the best candidates for its job vacancies. Silicon Valley-located companies like PayPal typically have to pay high-level employees over $100,000 to accommodate for the area’s high cost of living.