Best Companies for Gen Y: Millennials at Work

PayScale and Brazen Careerist released today the "Top 50 Gen Y Companies". It was a lot of fun working with Penelope Trunk developing this list.

Gen Y, also known as Millennials, is the generation born after 1977. Since over half of Gen Y go to 4-year colleges, we decided to focus on the large companies where Gen Y college grads would most likely be happy working.

In this post, after a quick review of the methodology, I will count the winner and losers, and look at why some famous companies didn't make the list.

Even if you are not working at a top Gen Y company, are you at least being paid fairly? Find out with a free PayScale Salary Report.

Majors by Gender: Is It Bias or the Major that Determines Future Pay?

The discussion of pay differences across gender is a hot topic. We addressed this topic recently in a project with the New York Times Economix Blog, as well as in our own blog post. In these studies, we controlled for compensable factors (experience, education, specialty, company size, etc.) across men and women and find the gender wage gap to be 94%, which is much narrower than the oft quoted 77 cents to the dollar.

One reason the National Committee on Pay Equity finds a pay gap of 77% is they don't control for major or job choice and instead compare differences in the national median salaries of men and women.

However, as we have discussed in previous blog posts (here and here), choice of degree type and college major play a large role in determining national pay differences across men and women. Simply put, women tend to choose majors that pay a lower national median pay.

Are you curious whether you are paid what you're worth given the major you chose? Find out with a free PayScale Salary Report.

Jobs that Make Our World a Better Place

The Thanksgiving Holiday is a time to give thanks and recognize the people who contribute to our wellbeing. These people include the teachers who impart wisdom on our children, the doctors who ensure our health, and volunteers who are vital to the success of our social programs.

In fact, there are many jobs that help to make our world a better place; some of which might not come to mind immediately.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we at PayScale decided to create a list of Jobs that Make the World a Better Place. In this post, I will look at these jobs whose workers deserve our thanks, and how they are monetarily rewarded for their efforts.

Are you curious if you're paid what you're worth? Find out with a free PayScale Salary Report.

Women Earn Less Than Men, but Why?

In a recent project with Catherine Rampell at the New York Times Economix Blog, we examine the pay differential between men and women across a set of 90 jobs.

Numerous studies have looked at the gender wage gap, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the New York Times, and the Census. However, the question remains, why does the gap exist?

Examining national pay differences across men and women, even by job title, can be misleading. Men and women in a sample may be different in ways that employers could legitimately pay differently.

Using our unique dataset here at PayScale, we are able to control for many outside compensable factors (experience, education, specialty, company size, etc.) in order to provide a more apples-to-apples comparison.

This allows us to give one of the strongest answers to date to the question, "If a man and woman are doing the exact same job with the exact same qualifications, responsibilities, and employer type, is the man still paid more than the woman?"

In this post, I will look at what our data says, and address some of the questions and misconceptions Economix readers have.

Are you curious if you're paid what you're worth, no matter your gender? Find out with a free PayScale Salary Report.

4-Year vs. 2-Year College Degrees: How does the Pay Compare?

With the rising cost of four year colleges, people may ask themselves whether the salary promised by a bachelor's degree is really worth the time and money required to complete the program. Why not complete an associate's degree program, and enter the workforce sooner and (mostly) free of debt?

Using the extensive PayScale salary database, in this post we will examine the pay differences across degrees and other characteristics. While our database has its limitations - for example, we don't track unemployment rates, which are much higher for less advanced degrees - it gives us insight into the value in salary of finishing 4 years at a college or university.

Will a bachelor's degree lead to higher pay in your career? Use the PayScale Salary Survey to find out.

Is Your Job One of the Best in America?

In a recent project with CNN/Money Magazine, we looked at all the factors, not just pay, that go into making the 100 Best Jobs in America. Is there a lot of growth in the field? Is the job low stress? Does it offer scheduling flexibility? And how many positions are even available?

The set of jobs is a mix: some require extensive medical training (e.g. Anesthesiologist); others offer a lot of schedule flexibility (e.g. Software Product Manager), and still others are sworn to secrecy about their day-to-day activities (e.g. Intelligence Analyst).

In this post, I will discuss the methodology used to determine the Best Jobs in America, and pull out some of the most interesting points from the data.

Is your job a "Best Job" and you are wondering if you are earning top dollar? Find out with a free PayScale salary report.

Private vs. Public Universities: Is CalPoly Better than USC?

Looking at the PayScale data on the pay of college graduates, I was struck again by how very different schools can produce graduates who earn similar salaries.

My favorite example is comparing the University of Southern California (USC) to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (CalPoly). All three are southern California universities. In our report, at mid-career, median total cash compensation of graduates is:

1. USC was at $103K
2. CalPoly at $102K
3. UCLA at $97K

While UCLA pay is 6% less, the differences are not particularly statistically significant between these three.

These are three very different schools: a selective private research university, a leading public university, and a state school whose "career orientation is evident in its programs in Agriculture, Architecture, Business, Design, Education, Engineering, Graphic Communication and Journalism." How can all produce graduates who earn nearly the same amount?

In this post, I will look at how this is possible, and see what it means for the cost/benefit analysis in choosing colleges.

Should you be earning like a USC grad? Spend 5 minutes completing the PayScale online salary evaluation survey and know.

Top Paying Undergraduate Degree Majors: Which List is Right?

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released their annual list of top 15 paying undergraduate majors yesterday.

They are a little late: We released the PayScale list of salary by major last week :-)

While the top level take away - starting pay is highest for engineering and other technical fields - the differences are an interesting look into how a survey is defined affects the results.

Are you being paid all you are worth? Spend 5 minutes completing the PayScale online salary evaluation survey and know.

Predicting Future Wages is Hard, Even When Budgeted

World at Work released the preliminary results for the 2010 salary budget survey.

While its predictions for next year are interesting, what is really fascinating is the difference between predictions and reality for this year.

Back in May 2008, employers looked at their budgets, and predicted raises for the coming year. This survey contains the actual raises given as of May 2009.

In this post, I'll take a quick look the World at Work preliminary data, what our PayScale data show, and take my guess at what the future holds.

A raise is made up of two parts: changes in your abilities and responsibilities, and general market forces. While the big picture market is bleak, is your employer recognizing all you are worth? Use the free PayScale Salary Survey to find out.

Comp. Time and Overtime: Only After 45 Hours of Work a Week?

Things have been busy at PayScale - we have been adding new features to our flagship professional product, PayScale Insight, and our Research Center - so I haven’t had as much time to post on salary issues.

I did respond to a reader’s question about overtime; others might be interested in the question and answer:

I get paid a annual salary of $40,000. I am a maintenance person. I work on AC units and furnaces; I paint; I am a jack of all trades and a master of none. I work around 5 to 6 hrs overtime a week.

My employer says I can't get comp time until 45 hrs a week have been met; is this legal? I only get 1 hr comp time over 45 hrs. Should I get 1 1/2, if it is legal to allow the comp time over 45 hours? This must mean I’m non-exempt right? If I confront them with this issue, can they say you are exempt and work me to no end? Help!

These questions are about the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): what is a legal use of over-time, comp. time, etc.?

In this post, I will answer these, and also take a quick look at what FLSA says about breaks and meal time.

Wondering if you should be earning $40,000/year, like our "Jack" of all trades? Use the PayScale Salary Calculator to find out.