Counting the Google Millionaires
Erick Schonfeld
35 comments »
In the 1990s, we loved to tally up the number of Microsoft millionaires. Now, it’s Google’s turn. The New York Times cites estimates that there are 1,000 Google employees whose stock grants and options are worth more than $5 million. So there are more than 1,000 Google millionaires, including Google’s former masseuse, Bonnie Brown.
And anyone who joined a year ago is worth, on average, $276,000. According to the story, the average options grant to an employee who started a year ago was for 685 shares, plus an additional 230 shares in outright stock. At the current price of $662, that comes to $276,000 (assuming full vesting of the shares). Google currently has 16,000 employees, of which roughly 6,500 were added in the past year alone. So 9,500 are worth at least $276,000. Plus, they still get free massages.
premium payment, for the top 1% premium employees google cherry picks.
lol - the thing with google is that they frown on you, or maybe directly tell you, to not be too lavishly…
at least to the car you drive.
i recall the founders saying if you look at the google parking lot…you’ll see no fine cars - because that’s not the ‘google way’, or image they want maintain.
you can have fine cars in your garage, but you’re essentially not allowed to drive them to work.
it’s from a dateline tv interview, i believe - a while back
They killed Kenny, those bastards!
What’s happening to this country is sad. Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, yet their janitors get paid a mere $10 an hour.
That explains who is keeping the housing market overpriced on the west coast…!
The reason Google is so successful is that it treats it’s employees very well. Think about it, if you are making millions for a company, you are more prone to stay with them (retention) and to do good work.
Snyggast:
Google employees, whether they’re a janitor with a GED or a programmer PhD, aren’t exempt from the supply and demand forces of the job market. It applies to them all.
@6 if you’re making too much, you cash out and leave like a lot of them are doing.
@6: There are plenty of companies who treat employees extremely well and don’t quite perform like Google. While retention is certainly a good thing, it’s most certainly NOT “the reason Google is so successful”.
“assuming full vesting of the shares” falls into the “counting chickens before they hatch” category.
Until the shares vest they’re not yours.
Wow!! I agree with K “That explains who is keeping the housing market overpriced on the west coast…!” I need a job like that… ugh it makes me sick to think of how much some people make and how little others make….
Google employees are ivy league
The party’s over though. 276K pre-tax is not change your life kind of money.
I have to disagree with Dan. Google treats their employees too well, and that’s why they won’t do anything exciting anymore.
If you’ve got financial security, vibrant social life with like-minded people at the Googleplex, and a high status (”I work for Google” makes people go “Wow”) then you’re “made”.
Add to that: people who started working at Google in their exciting 20s are now in their stable 30s with families; Google is no longer an exciting and dynamic start-up with 20 people, where each person is meaningful and can impact the business. When you’re part of a 12,000 employee godzilla organization with rules and regulations, you start acting like an anonymous bolt in the machine, no matter how cool, open and dynamic your workplace is.
There is no reason to shake things up, no reason to take risks, no reason to change the world. Your best course of action is to maintain the status-quo, whether you’re an individual employee or an entire organization.
Cash-cow organizations don’t change the world. They just keep making money — no reason to risk changing that.
Highly content employees don’t change the world. “Hungry” employees do.
Google is officially the new Microsoft. Microsoft is officially the new IBM (same thing sans the glamor).
Time to look for the next world-changer start-up that’ll shake the net. If you’re too fixated on Google, you might miss it.
GOOG employees worth a lot less today. Yikes!
Bonnie Brown has a Web site: http://www.Giiglebook.com
You can read more about her and read excerpts from her yet-to-be-published book, Giigle, on that site.
@14: are you saying that Google shouldn’t treat its employees as well as it does?
I have to say that most of your post doesn’t even make any sense. I think that treating your employees well, making them feel like they are an important part of the team, and paying them what they deserve actually makes them MORE motivated to work hard because they are working to keep a great job at a company that they probably love.
Just because someone has a family and is stable doesn’t make them any less “hungry” to perform well and innovate.
I seriously hope that you do not run your own company because, with that attitude you’re not going to keep your employees for long.
#8 why would someone leave the company if they’re making 5million in todays world thats not a lotta money, you can’t live that long off of it unless you eat turkey sandwiches everyday and live in missouri. they would continue to still work for google but a key reason is the fact that they do treat employees good and that is an incentive to work hard to keep the job and money coming in.
I’d be interested to see how Apple employees are doing by comparison. If you joined in early 2003 you might have got your options at a $7-ish strike price. Until the recent sell-off that would have meant a gain of $175+ per share.
I was shocked to see that the NYTimes quoted this high figure ($276,000). A bit too rosy for me, so, to be fair, a bit more info:
While I can’t find any fault in the base numbers, reliance on these averages create the illusion that the typical worker at Google is financially overcompensated. I can’t deny that the workplace and other benfits are great, but people need to know that the distribution of money is VERY lumpy! Executives are, of course, well compensated with options. And, by the looks of it, engineers get a good number of options too. However, there are a lot of non-executive and/or non-engineers at Google who received far fewer options than those quoted. [These two groups really skewed the average upwards] Basically, there are many (1,000s) more that have options (not fully vested) in the five figures and far fewer 276,000-aires.
@4
I think ten an hour is pretty low but when it comes down to it, a janitor shouldn’t be making the same as someone who’s gone to school and has a degree (several perhaps.) That’s not to say that janitors don’t have degrees.
@17
I think his first sentence could have been rephrased a little. Better said (if I may) “Google employees may tend to get complacent since they are well-paid.”
@18 errr…. if I had $5 million I am sure that I could quite happily draw an income of $200k and still grow the principal. Anyway, I like turkey.
Wow, Google has a one-year vesting schedule! They’re even more lavish and progressive than I thought.
Facebook will take 20% of Google’s market share within two years.
“And anyone who joined a year ago is worth, on average, $276,000″
..this really amounts to peanuts(after taxes) when you consider the sacrifice that is required to live/breathe all things Google. i remember people making this much in one day trading options back in ‘99, while working at startups no less, which then subsequently went public making them paper millionaires.
Sadly…as the saying goes, ‘easy come, easy go’
as a former googler, i’m not sure this math was done correctly… i would look at averages and medians…
I have to disagree with #14. Every encounter I’ve had with Google employees suggests they’re worth every penny and are NOT by any means complacent.
They hire superstars, and compensate them as such.
@21: True, many if not most cleaners have degrees. English, Art History, Meeja Studies…
Regarding the complaceny/incentive debate, both sides are right. Central to the economic theory of labour supply is that to a certain level a wage increase both incentivises employees to work more hours, but at some point an employee will decide he has enough money and a wage increase will make him work less hours. If you draw a graph of labour supply with hours worked on the x-axis and wage on the y-axis, it bends backwards, like a U rotated ninety degrees anti-clockwise.
The trick for the employer is to find the right balance, and it sounds like Google has for the moment.
“And anyone who joined a year ago is worth, on average, $276,000.” - I wonder what kinda drugs lead to that kind of conclusion? This is an absolute ridiculous statement. Even without any insider info - how likely would people be to stay with G if they’d earn a fortune 1st year after joining?
#18: what kind of world do you live in? $5M and you can move to any third world country and live like a freaking king with a hareem of your choice simply off the interest! There is an entire world out there beyond the USA you know
Jon
I went to a web page about a book being published by Bonnie Brown, Google’s first hired masseuse. She made millions by massaging Google’s employees. Probably an interesting read. Here’s a link to the website: http://www.giiglebook.com/
I’ve coached and written resumes for client’s who have been recruited by Google. I can assure you they hire the best.