Facebook employees are most stressed

Facebook Inc employees are the youngest and most satisfied, and yet the most stressed, among workers at big US technology companies, a survey found. 

Facebook had the lowest median age, 26, as well as the highest portion of female workers, 33 per cent, among nine of the industry's top businesses, according to PayScale Inc, a Seattle-based research firm. 

Employees at International Business Machines Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co were the oldest surveyed, with a median age of 44. 

The social-networking site, run by the 27-year-oldMark Zuckerberg, has thrived by disrupting more-established technologies, such as Internet search and Web portals. That upstart spirit extends to its hiring policies, where workers aren't judged by how many years they've spent in the business. 

'We really don't believe that you have to have a lot of experience to make a big difference,' Zuckerberg says in a video on the company's career website. 'Look at me, right? I started this from college.' 

PayScale collected online surveys from employees at Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Dell Inc, Facebook, Google Inc, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp. The results aren't verified by the companies and aren't a scientific sampling because they depend on individual workers submitting their data. 

Apple's median starting salary was $43,100, excluding employees from the company's retail stores, according to PayScale's survey. That puts it at the bottom on the list. Microsoft was highest, with pay of $86,900. 

Apple's designers 
Even so, both pay a 15 per cent premium over what workers would get elsewhere, said Al Lee, PayScale's director of quantitative analysis. The difference may stem from the mix of jobs at each company, he said. The pay figures also don't factor in stock options. 

'Apple may have a bunch more designers and Web marketers on staff than some of the other companies, and that might pay less,' Lee said. The company also employs an in-house support staff to answer calls, unlike some big technology companies. 

At Facebook, workers make about $59,100 to start, 49 per cent more than the national average. They get a 13 per cent premium over what employees would earn at similar positions at other companies, the survey found. 

That extra pay comes with a dose of pressure, according to PayScale. Employees ranked highest in job satisfaction but also indicated their work was 'highly stressful,' tying them with Amazon's workers. The seven-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company is constantly innovating in an effort to stay on top of the social-networking field.