It should come as no surprise that many of the happiest employees are well paid. In the case of demanding consulting and technology jobs at companies such as PwC or Google, employees are paid some of the highest salaries in the country. At other companies, including wholesale warehouse club Costco, employees are paid hourly and not especially well compared to all occupations. However, Costco and other retailers and restaurants on the list pay very competitive salaries by industry standards, and mostly offer relatively generous benefit packages.
However, research has shown that a decent salary is only a partial driver to workplace satisfaction. Four in every five workers would prefer benefits such as medical insurance, paid time off, and retirement plans over a pay raise, according to a recent Glassdoor survey.
Compared to many other high income nations where these benefits are provided by the central government, American workers are far less likely to have health insurance and retirement plans. The United States is also one of the only developed countries without guaranteed paid time off -- even China requires paid time off for its workers by law. At these companies at least, the perks are excellent.
The best companies to work for also tend to be financially successful. It may be that happy employees help improve the bottom line or that success breeds a better work environment. In any case, working for a profitable company improves the likelihood that employees will be offered professional opportunities since resources are available to invest in the workforce.
Profits and job satisfaction are directly related at some of these companies. A number of the best companies to work for offer, in addition to traditional benefits, a profit sharing program. At Delta Air Lines, for example, employees are awarded bonuses at the end of each year based on the performance of the company. Procter & Gamble, which has the oldest profit sharing program in the country, is another notable example. Many Delta and P&G employees feel motivated by the profit sharing program and cite it as one of the major advantages to working at the company.
In order to determine America’s best companies to work for, 24/7 Wall St. independently reviewed employee ratings and testimonials on Glassdoor - this is not a Glassdoor.com commissioned report - retrieved on July 6, 2016. Among the more than 400 companies and organizations reviewed, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 58 businesses that received the highest overall ratings. Employee satisfaction is measured by Glassdoor on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0, where 1.0 is very dissatisfied and 5.0 is very satisfied. To be considered, a company had to have at least 1,000 reviews and an average rating of 3.8 or higher. When two or more companies had the same review score, the company with more employee reviews was ranked higher. Government agencies as well as nonprofit companies were excluded from our analysis. Employee totals and revenue figures are for the most recent fiscal year available. Sources include company documents and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. For companies that do not provide data, Forbes estimates were used. For companies reporting revenue in foreign currencies, we converted the revenue into U.S. dollars based on the effective exchange rate at the end of the company’s fiscal year.
