Does CRE pay more than Google?
A few weeks ago, someone at Google leaked a spreadsheet with detailed compensation for 100 or so jobs (link to the original story in comments). Of course, we had to find a way to compare Google to commercial real estate.
----- Highest paying jobs at Google -----
1) Software engineer
$82K to $718K base salary with bonus up to $605K
Total comp topping out at $1.3M
2) Engineering manager
$188K to $400K base salary with bonus up to $200K
Total comp topping out at $600K
3) Data scientist
$120K to $254K base salary with bonus up to $326K
Total comp topping out at $580K
Obviously, a Google-to-CRE comparison is apples-to-oranges. Most real estate jobs are with smaller companies, CRE firms are typically a lot leaner and more top-heavy than Google, etc. But even after throwing out c-suite CRE jobs, the comparison is interesting.
----- CRE jobs that would be in the top 3 at Google -----
Top Division Executive ($1.1M total comp)
Top Regional Executive ($786K)
Top Capital Markets Executive ($783K)
Top Development Executive ($774K)
Top Property Mgmt. Executive ($737K)
Top Leasing Executive ($686K)
Top Transactions Executive ($638K)
Top Asset Management Executive ($635K)
Chief Accounting Officer ($624K)
Top Acquisitions Executive ($610K)
Note that the amounts above reflect total comp at the higher end of the range but are averaged across CRE sectors, so some roles and silos within real estate are above the average high-end total comp in our list. i.e., there are likely many other roles that would fit into Google's top 3, but we averaged them down across real estate sectors. "Top acquisitions executive" averages down CRE sectors that tend to pay more.
Obviously, most of these roles are the top-paying jobs within their respective silos at their firms. Again, apples-to-oranges.
----- How many jobs can get base comp over $250K? -----
Google: 30 of the 100 jobs top out at base salaries above $250K
CRE: 57 of 200 roles top out at base salaries above $250K
----- Top 20 paying roles -----
Only the highest-paying role at Google wins in a race against CRE when comparing the top 20 highest-paying CRE roles. i.e., the top-paying non-c suite role at Google beats the top-paying non-c suite role in real estate, but all of the other top 20 roles were in favor of real estate.
----- Our conclusions -----
In all candor, we were surprised by these comparisons. Does CRE really pay better than Google?
Maybe we're missing concentrations of jobs. Are there tens of thousands of software engineers making $1M a year at Google?
Supposedly, there are 4 million people who consider themselves "in commercial real estate," but we think the number of decision-makers categorized in the compensation survey (which could be inaccurate) is much narrower. For reference, Google has about 190,000 employees.
What do you think?
Sources: Insider, CEL & Associates
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