Among the biopharma industry’s biggest employers, California’s Gilead Sciences had the highest median salary for its workforce, an Endpoints News analysis found.
Endpoints tallied 2023 median employee pay at 177 life sciences companies. Here’s a look at pay at industry’s biggest employers — global drugmakers with at least 10,000 employees, according to their most recent annual filings. (In the industry as a whole, many of the top-paying companies are smaller biotechs whose workforces are skewed to more expensive R&D and leadership functions.)
One important caveat: Not all drugmakers use the same methodology in their disclosures. While the Securities and Exchange Commission requires these companies to share median employee pay, the agency allows for companies to use different methods in calculating that total. For instance, Pfizer focused only on cash compensation to its workers, while others like Eli Lilly and Regeneron included an estimated value of any equity awards granted in the past year.
We also used similar metrics that also vary to include some foreign-filing giants like AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk. AstraZeneca, for instance, disclosed the typical pay for its median worker in the UK.
For further breakdowns of pay at the largest drugmaker and biotech’s hubs, check out the following stories: