Okay, so you never actually keep your new year’s resolutions, so think of this as just some really good career advice that just so happens to have come out on January 1. No pressure, right? As many of us millennials begin to grow out of the post-college and post-grad years, career becomes a main focal point in our lives, and luckily, we’ve managed to survive the worst recession and financial crisis in a generation so for the most part, things can only go up from here. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the 50 top employers of Generation Y, so you don’t have to look too far to find a promising industry.
With the help of PayScale, here are the top gen y employers, ranked by the “Gen Y Company Score,” a unique statistic that reflects the specificity of the skills required by that company, and the percentage of how much more common each job skill is for millennials than all other employees. The rankings also include reflections of flexible schedules, something millennials treasure in a work environment. Also included are data about job satisfaction, a pretty common measurement across generations. However, millennials also value a sense of meaningfulness, which is also measured in the list below. Lastly, another unique characteristic of the study is the “Green Score,” a measuring of the environmental footprint, management initiatives, and reporting practices of each company, stats derived from Newsweek.
| Rank | Employer | Median Pay for Gen Y | % Gen Y Employees | % with High Job Satisfaction | % with Low Stress Levels | % That Feel Job Is Meaningful | % with a Flexible Schedule | Green Score | Gen Y Company Score |
| 1 | Qualcomm, Inc. | $90,600 | 35% | 87% | 11% | 72% | 95% | 62.6 | 11.76 |
| 2 | Google, Inc. | $80,900 | 41% | 82% | 15% | 58% | 75% | 63.8 | 11.37 |
| 3 | Medtronic, Inc. | $63,500 | 27% | 74% | 19% | 87% | 83% | 64.2 | 11.32 |
| 4 | Intel Corp. | $81,200 | 32% | 79% | 11% | 72% | 89% | 71.4 | 9.94 |
| 5 | Microsoft Corp. | $92,800 | 25% | 71% | 14% | 64% | 91% | 67.6 | 7.71 |
| 6 | Abbott Laboratories | $61,300 | 23% | 85% | 21% | 82% | 76% | 54.2 | 7.67 |
| 7 | Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) | $55,800 | 30% | 71% | 17% | 65% | 84% | 65.6 | 7.49 |
| 8 | Lockheed Martin Corp. | $62,000 | 33% | 65% | 16% | 67% | 80% | 60.8 | 7.14 |
| 9 | Rockwell Collins, Inc. | $62,500 | 35% | 77% | 12% | 67% | 83% | 62.2 | 7.00 |
| 10 | Cameron International | $65,300 | 45% | 95% | 14% | 59% | 77% | 39.8 | 6.84 |
| 11 | EMC Corp. | $68,100 | 28% | 79% | 16% | 43% | 86% | 71.6 | 6.57 |
| 12 | Booz, Allen, and Hamilton | $66,300 | 41% | 73% | 12% | 58% | 79% | *55.7 | 6.40 |
| 13 | The Boeing Company | $65,000 | 29% | 72% | 13% | 68% | 79% | 66.9 | 6.34 |
| 14 – Tie | Cisco Systems, Inc. | $84,200 | 25% | 69% | 12% | 59% | 89% | 68.4 | 6.16 |
| 14 – Tie | Texas Instruments, Inc. | $75,100 | 26% | 78% | 11% | 67% | 89% | 61.8 | 6.16 |
| 16 | General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. | $61,000 | 28% | 73% | 20% | 66% | 75% | 50.1 | 6.00 |
| 17 | Cummins, Inc. | $65,100 | 41% | 72% | 11% | 65% | 73% | 55.3 | 5.93 |
| 18 | Northrop Grumman Corp. | $64,700 | 29% | 65% | 13% | 60% | 85% | 64.7 | 5.34 |
| 19 | Freddie Mac | $67,300 | 38% | 65% | 25% | 40% | 70% | *55.7 | 4.95 |
| 20 | Baker Hughes, Inc. | $67,500 | 34% | 70% | 21% | 41% | 68% | 56.2 | 4.90 |
| 21 | ConocoPhillips Company | $82,300 | 29% | 79% | 13% | 70% | 63% | 47.5 | 4.89 |
| 22 | Raytheon Company | $69,600 | 28% | 71% | 11% | 57% | 85% | 62.4 | 4.88 |
| 23 | Eaton Corp. | $61,500 | 27% | 79% | 17% | 59% | 66% | 55.4 | 4.83 |
| 24 | Harris Corp. | $59,100 | 25% | 67% | 22% | 59% | 74% | 59.0 | 4.81 |
| 25 | Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. | $67,000 | 41% | 66% | 12% | 40% | 78% | 70.9 | 4.76 |
| 26 | International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. | $66,000 | 23% | 64% | 14% | 48% | 86% | 82.5 | 4.53 |
| 27 | John Deere | $48,600 | 38% | 68% | 24% | 58% | 60% | 54.1 | 4.51 |
| 28 | URS Corporation, Inc. | $56,200 | 34% | 65% | 14% | 61% | 75% | 54.4 | 4.39 |
| 29 | CH2M HILL | $59,400 | 31% | 67% | 11% | 68% | 83% | *55.7 | 4.34 |
| 30 | Johnson Controls, Inc. | $54,800 | 21% | 81% | 13% | 71% | 84% | 58.0 | 4.23 |
| 31 | AON Corp. | $55,000 | 36% | 65% | 16% | 39% | 86% | 57.0 | 4.16 |
| 32 | Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. | $52,600 | 21% | 81% | 15% | 65% | 80% | 54.8 | 4.05 |
| 33 | Chesapeake Energy Corp. | $56,500 | 46% | 79% | 11% | 71% | 68% | 38.9 | 4.02 |
| 34 | Yahoo!, Inc. | $84,900 | 27% | 64% | 9% | 60% | 84% | 60.5 | 3.83 |
| 35 | Whirlpool Corp. | $49,000 | 30% | 83% | 13% | 57% | 78% | 49.4 | 3.56 |
| 36 | Pfizer, Inc. | $61,800 | 16% | 71% | 13% | 79% | 76% | 66.2 | 3.54 |
| 37 | L-3 Communications | $59,300 | 25% | 68% | 13% | 71% | 78% | 47.6 | 3.50 |
| 38 | Chevron Corp. | $78,500 | 28% | 73% | 9% | 58% | 82% | 49.4 | 3.44 |
| 39 | Estée Lauder | $51,500 | 42% | 58% | 13% | 58% | 71% | 51.1 | 3.43 |
| 40 | Motorola, Inc. | $72,000 | 20% | 60% | 10% | 54% | 95% | 70.7 | 3.36 |
| 41 | Johnson & Johnson | $61,900 | 27% | 67% | 7% | 75% | 74% | 74.6 | 3.26 |
| 42 | Duke Energy Corp. | $59,900 | 27% | 86% | 9% | 73% | 76% | 45.0 | 3.23 |
| 43 | General Electric Combined | $65,200 | 23% | 73% | 9% | 64% | 75% | 63.3 | 3.15 |
| 44 | eBay, Inc. | $84,200 | 33% | 69% | 5% | 58% | 92% | 59.5 | 2.99 |
| 45 | Apple Computer, Inc. | $42,400 | 37% | 73% | 11% | 63% | 55% | 64.7 | 2.91 |
| 46 | Stryker | $64,900 | 36% | 72% | 5% | 88% | 77% | 48.5 | 2.87 |
| 47 | Monsanto Company | $58,000 | 38% | 69% | 11% | 78% | 89% | 22.8 | 2.79 |
| 48 | Waste Management, Inc. | $42,400 | 19% | 81% | 19% | 73% | 69% | 42.3 | 2.61 |
| 49 | Hewlett-Packard Company | $56,000 | 17% | 56% | 20% | 38% | 84% | 75.8 | 2.54 |
| 50 | Oracle Corp. | $76,600 | 16% | 74% | 10% | 44% | 93% | 65.2 | 2.49 |
One of the most obvious similarities between these companies is that many of them involve the tech industry. Are there any companies whose rankings you’re surprised by? We would love to hear from any of our readers who work at one of the companies listed above, and if the statistics reflect your own experiences fairly. Find us on Twitter @PloymintHQ
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