Mark Zuckerberg had a $1 base salary last year but his total compensation value increased as security and travel costs rose

Mark Zuckerberg met with entrepreneurs and innovators at Cortex Innovation Community technology hub in St. Louis in November.

Mark Zuckerberg met with entrepreneurs and innovators at Cortex Innovation Community technology hub in St. Louis in November. PHOTO: JEFF ROBERSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Deepa Seetharaman

Updated April 16, 2018 9:26 p.m. ET

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Facebook Inc. FB 0.19% employees earned a median pay package of more than $240,000 last year while Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s total compensation was more than $8.8 million, according to the social-media company’s 2017 proxy.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s compensation of $8,852,366 was about 37 times higher than the median Facebook employee, according to the annual proxy filed late Friday. The company disclosed the pay ratio as part of a broader requirement of the postcrisis Dodd-Frank law that went into effect this year.

As in years past, Mr. Zuckerberg’s base salary was $1 in 2017 and he didn’t receive a bonus or any equity rewards. But the 33-year-old billionaire’s security and travel costs rose 54% to roughly $8.85 million in 2017 as he embarked on a 30-state tour of the U.S.

Facebook calculated the 37-to-1 pay ratio by comparing Mr. Zuckerberg’s compensation to that of a specific individual identified as a median worker. Facebook factored in the salary, bonus or sales commission and the value of equity awards granted to that employee as of Oct. 31, 2017. Many of Facebook’s Silicon Valley peers have not yet filed their proxy statements. Twitter Inc. last week said the annual total compensation for a median employee in 2017 was $161,860.

Facebook didn’t include contract workers or workers employed through a third party when calculating the median pay package across the company. Such employees are paid much less than full-time Facebook employees with some in the Bay Area earning about $18 to $34.75 an hour.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3951193&forum_id=2#35855720)

24 yo making 200k is doing all right

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In an annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon, said its median employee brought home $28,446 in total compensation in 2017. That figure is much lower than other tech companies — Facebook, for instance, recently disclosed a median salary of more than $240,000 — as well as United Parcel Service, which reported median compensation of $53,433.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3951193&forum_id=2#35874502)

Alphabet’s median pay was about 18% lower than at rival internet giant Facebook Inc., where employees earned a median salary of $240,000.

The relatively high pay at two of the world’s biggest tech firms is a sign of the talent war in Silicon Valley, where talented engineers are in limited supply. Their pay numbers far surpassed most of the 379 companies in the S&P 500 that had disclosed compensation figures through Friday afternoon. The median figure among that group was $69,205.

Facebook and Google also dwarfed another tech giant in this category, Amazon.com Inc., AMZN 3.60% where a median worker makes just $28,446. Most of the roughly half-million employees at Amazon unload trucks, drive forklifts and walk miles collecting products to fill orders—all for around the same pay as workers in other retail companies’ warehouses.

Companies in the technology sector as a whole are reporting higher figures, with half reporting median employee pay over about $85,000. But even within tech, there is a split, with software and services firms tending to report higher median income than semiconductor and hardware manufacturers.

The highest median pay reported in the S&P 500 so far was by Incyte Corp. , a Wilmington, Del., biotechnology firm with 1,208 employees. Incyte’s median pay was about $253,000. The third highest, below Facebook and above Alphabet, was Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. at more than $211,000.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3951193&forum_id=2#35944312)

At Facebook, spokesman Anthony Harrison said $240,430 “is absolutely representative” of employee pay. It includes restricted stock units, which almost all employees get. It does not include the pay of shuttle drivers, security guards, janitors or other outsourced workers that “handle services that are not core to our business.”

Nationwide, retailers and other “consumer discretionary” companies are posting the highest CEO pay ratios, 434-to-1 on average, according to Pearl Meyer’s website.

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Among Bay Area retailers, Ross Stores said its CEO made $12.4 million compared with $9,437 for the median worker, a ratio of 1,314 to 1.

Williams Sonoma reported a ratio of 1,477 to 1. Its median employee was a part-time sales associate in New Jersey. If it excluded permanent part-time, temporary and seasonal employees, the retailer said, its median pay would increase to $38,776 from $9,771 and its pay ratio would drop to 372-to-1.

Utilities and financial companies (including banks) are reporting the lowest ratios — 64 to 1 and 68 to 1, respectively — nationwide.

Wells Fargo posted a much higher ratio, 291 to 1, but other Bay Area financial companies were lower: 146 to 1 at Charles Schwab, 66 to 1 at First Republic Bank and 46 to 1 at Silicon Valley Bank.

Ratios at technology companies nationwide are running around 151 to 1, in line with the all-industry average. But pay varies widely, depending on how generous tech companies are with stock options and where their workers are employed. The same is true in other sectors.

Align Technology of San Jose, which makes the popular Invisalign teeth straighteners, said its median employee is a technician in Costa Rica making $12,764, “which is competitive pay for a technician position in Costa Rica.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3951193&forum_id=2#35944329)