Best Companies for Gen Y: Millennials at Work

December 17, 2009

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.

Do You Know What You're Worth?

What Makes a Company Best for Gen Y?

Our goal in making this ranking was to identify large companies that may be attractive to Gen Y job seekers who are college graduates.

Even though there are many excellent small companies, we focused on large companies (ones that employee more than ~2,000 bachelors graduates) because these are companies where many Gen Y workers will eventually find jobs.

While we all would like to work at the Gates Foundation, with only ~800 employees, the odds are pretty slim, and that is a large non-profit. With more than 100 times as many employees, Johnson and Johnson is a place where Millennials have a decent chance of landing a job.

The choice of criteria for ranking was based on Penelope's research into what Gen Y is looking for, and the PayScale bias in favor of objective measures:

Gender balance: Gen Y is the first generation to grow up with the expectation that women and men can fill the same roles. Having a workforce that reflects that is attractive.
Percentage Gen Y employees: Having co-workers who are at the same point in life is a benefit for both social interactions and support.
Climate Change Score: Gen Y will be living in 2050 with the consequences of the choices being made by companies today to address climate change. We used the ClimateCounts company scores.
Pay: Employers who pay Gen Y better are recognizing the value these workers bring to their companies. Generally, with higher pay comes greater responsibility and impact as well, which Gen Y workers value.

One area with growing Gen Y employment that we didn't include was government agencies. While government agencies likely wouldn't have ranked well with the criteria we used, we didn't include them for technical reasons.

Winners and Losers

Here are the Top 50 Companies for Gen Y, together with information on industry, approximate number of employees, and median pay for Gen Y employees (all US locations).

Rank	Company Name	Industry	Approximate Number of Employees	National Gen Y Median Pay
1	NBC Universal, Inc.	Media	50,000	$68,700
2	PepsiCo Inc.	Food	185,000	$70,800
3	Nestle USA, Inc.	Food	16,000	$67,400
4	Google, Inc.	Information Technology	20,000	$92,200
5	Citigroup, Inc.	Banking	327,000	$73,800
6	Procter & Gamble Co.	Consumer Goods	135,000	$68,100
7	Johnson & Johnson	Consumer Goods	119,000	$68,300
8	Grant Thornton LLP	Consulting and Accounting	31,000	$58,700
9	AECOM Corporation	Engineering and Construction	43,000	$59,100
10	Merrill Lynch & Co, Inc.	Finance	9,700	$59,500
11	Abercrombie & Fitch Co	Retail	83,000	$33,000
12	The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.	Finance	30,000	$80,800
13	PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP	Consulting and Accounting	156,000	$59,200
14	Deutsche Bank	Banking	81,000	$77,700
15	Robert Half International Inc.	Professional Staffing and Consulting	13,000	$58,100
16	Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Inc.	Advertising	15,000	$45,600
17	Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.	Insurance	5,000	$44,300
18	Credit Suisse First Boston	Investment Banking	11,000	$85,600
19	Aon Consulting, Inc.	Human Capital and Management Consulting	6,300	$54,300
20	Morgan Stanley	Finance	47,000	$64,200
21	Stryker Corporation	Medical Technology	18,000	$64,400
22	Sony Pictures Entertainment	Media	6,000	$58,300
23	Yahoo! Inc.	Information Technology	14,000	$84,700
24	Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.	Defense	19,000	$68,500
25	Paychex, Inc.	Payrolls	13,000	$42,200
26	J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	Banking	225,000	$50,800
27	Bank of America Corp.	Banking	243,000	$43,900
28	Nike, Inc.	Consumer Goods	34,000	$50,500
29	Deloitte & Touche LLP	Consulting and Accounting	44,000	$62,800
30	Geico	Insurance	20,000	$46,100
31	Ernst & Young	Consulting and Accounting	27,000	$59,100
32	Bloomberg L.P.	Finance	11,000	$81,900
33	KPMG LLP	Consulting and Accounting	22,000	$60,900
34	Tribune Co.	Media	21,000	$49,500
35	Cummins Engine Co Inc	Heavy Equipment	40,000	$62,300
36	SunGard Data Systems	Information Technology	20,000	$76,200
37	Hewitt Associates, Inc.	Human Resources	23,000	$63,400
38	Exelon Corporation	Utilities	20,000	$71,700
39	Accenture	Management Consulting and Technology Services	186,000	$69,900
40	Automatic Data Processing, Inc.	Consulting and Accounting	45,000	$49,800
41	Express Scripts Incorporated	Pharmaceuticals	11,000	$42,800
42	Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated	Real Estate	36,000	$58,000
43	Nielsen Media Research Inc	Media	5,000	$53,900
44	Koch Industries, Inc.	Conglomerate	70,000	$51,800
45	Northern Trust Corp.	Finance	12,000	$55,100
46	Thomson Reuters	Finance	33,000	$63,500
47	Merck & Co., Inc.	Pharmaceuticals	55,000	$73,800
48	Target Corporation	Retail	351,000	$39,300
49	Ameriprise Financial, Inc.	Finance	11,000	$41,100
50	Marriott International, Inc.	Lodging	146,000	$38,000

What is very interesting about this list is who is on and who is off. Google and SunGard Data Systems make the top 50 list, while other technology industry leaders like Microsoft and Oracle do not. The key difference? Google and SunGard Data Systems have been more effective in hiring Gen Y workers of both genders.

Despite their current reputation, the finance and banking industry, with 12 companies in the top 50, remains an attractive option for Gen Y. This industry both pays Gen Y employees better than most and has a workforce that skews young.

How Useful is this List?

The purpose of the "Top 50 Gen Y Companies" ranking was to identify large companies that may be attractive to Gen Y job seekers, based on objective criteria that Gen Y cares about.

How useful is this list? I found it eye opening in two ways.

Before we started, I expected the list to be strongly biased to a particular industry; e.g., it would just be a list of all large tech companies. However, the large diversity of industries represented on the final list means there are attractive places for Gen Y across the economy. That broader view should help Gen Y job seekers at a time when finding a job is tough.

Similarly, that not all large companies in an industry are present is telling. That Google and Yahoo! make the list, and Oracle and Microsoft do not, points out significant differences in corporate culture that Gen Y job seekers should be aware of.

These are my reasons the ranking is useful for Gen Y. Penelope Trunk, as always, also has interesting insights worth reading.

As any Gen Y member will tell you, don't trust your boss to pay fairly, know what is fair. For powerful salary data and comparisons customized for your exact position or job offer, be sure to build a complete profile by taking PayScale's Full Salary Survey.

Cheers,

Al Lee