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Valve makes almost $50 million per employee, raking in more cash per person than Google, Amazon, or Microsoft — gaming giant's 350 employees on track to generate $17 billion this year (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 51 points 8 months ago* (6 children)

I wonder if they're also getting paid more or does greedy Gabe just take it all to fund his mega yachts.

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  • [–] 95 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Did a little digging, apparently in a 2021 lawsuit, documents were released with bad redactions (they blacked out over the data, but the underlying information was still able to be highlighted and copied/pasted. Very common error when redacting PDFs)

    I haven’t checked the data myself but according one user this was the breakdown:

    “Total staff as of 2021: 336 people

    Administration: 35 people making an average of 4.5 million a year

    Game Developers: 181 people making an average of 1 million a year

    Steam Developers: 79 people making an average of 960k a year

    Hardware Developers: 41 people making average of 430k a year”

    Normally I would guess that “average” here probably means a few people making a ton of money while others get shafted. But I think “admin” probably accounts for that. We have no official way of knowing the true breakdown since this info is not supposed to be public

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  • [–] 64 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    This actually seems like not a terrible spread. The average for the top earners is a little more than 10x the average for the lowest earners... Obviously outliers could be skewing that data (there could be one hardware developer making 30 million while the others work for poverty wages) but from the data we have, this isn't nearly as wide a gap as I would have expected.

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  • [–] 29 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Valve moved into hardware long after its other ventures, so it's not surprising the hardware devs make less -- they're newer. Still, $430k/yr is an enviable salary...

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago

    This was from 2021, so prior to the Steam Deck... that was really their break-out moment, I think, with regards to hardware. The Steam Link and Steam Controller were neat but didn't really capture their respective markets, and the Index was widely considered one of the best VR headsets on the market but that's a relatively small market, and it priced out all but the enthusiast tier consumers. The Steam Deck on the other hand had mass appeal and basically ushered in a golden age of handheld PC gaming... not to mention the immense hype around their recent hardware announcements. Could be that their hardware team is making more now.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    What does administration mean there? Like accounting, human resources and so? How could they make, in average, way more that developers??

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  • [–] 25 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I'd think it's marketing teams, HR, managers, the C-suite.

    Those who manage people usually make more than those who dos tuff because they take on more responsibilities.

    Yeah I know that's bullshit and that they shift responsibilities all the time, but good managers do shoulder bullshit so workers can work.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago*

    I mean yeah and no. I manage a team, I make 10%-12% more than the team even though technically we do the same tasks. The difference is I need to know their job, but also manage a schedule, and allocate resources, while planning sales for the future stream so they don't run out of work. It's a different skillset on top of the team skill requirement.

    Not justifying a C suite at 20 million over dudes making 60k though

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  • [–] 24 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Would make him the first billionaire in history to pay his workers their worth, so.... Not a fucking chance.

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  • [+] -16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

    Unfortunately that isn't true, by accident this has been tested by tech companies like Netflix they were paid in stocks when the company was worth nothing but as it grew they got paid more and more until it became apparent that they didn't actually have to work anymore entire companies became filled with zombie employees people who don't work like at all beyond what they are contractually obligated to do, it created huge discontent between the teirs of worker the one's actually doing the work and the ones getting paid, you almost can't pay people beyond a certain amount because they don't work for you then they don't need to they can live a perfectly fine life without working and nothing gets done so you just have to higher a new staff who once again you can't in pay too much or they won't need to work and you'll just have more zombie employees.

    It is actually very well established:

    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11211-008-0063-2

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0030507368900093

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_theory

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation_crowding_theory

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3906839/

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214804322001422

    https://www.bsfrey.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/crowding-effects-on-intrinsic-motivation.pdf

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  • [–] 27 points 8 months ago*

    people who don’t work like at all beyond what they are contractually obligated to do

    I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. Why do you frame the workers doing the work they're paid to do as bad?

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    I don't get it. Are there any sources for this?

    Are you saying the more people get paid the less work they do? This doesn't make sense to me. This sounds like a management and hiring issue. If someone doesn't want to work, you replace them with someone who does. Don't hire lazy fucks, hire competent people.

    If I had a job that pays say 1 million a year, and I know I won't be able to get paid nowhere near as much at another company, I would make sure I work hard enough not lose that amazingly paid job, because otherwise I will have to work for half that and give up my rich lifestyle.

    Again, a management issue for letting employees become zombies and a hiring issue for hiring lazy bums.

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  • [–] -3 points 8 months ago (1 child)
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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago

    The research is mostly about overpaying, not high but equal pay for everyone doing the same job. It happens when people compare their effort to others' and if they feel over-rewarded it can actually lead to two outcomes:

    • Increasing effort to justify it, or
    • reducing effort

    And the evidence is actually mixed between the two outcomes, because different people respond differently to different incentives, like flexibility, holidays, etc.

    Equity theory mostly applies only when the work is measurable and the teams/individuals compare themselves constantly.

    IMO this can be solved by better management and equal pay for equal work/skillset.

    There are also other incentives that can crowd out internal motivation, such as surveillance, pressure, inequality. But obviously management doesn't want to talk about those, much more profitable to reduce the pay.

    High pay alone doesn't really trigger crowding out.

    I still maintain my position that this is largely a management and greed issue. And high and equal pay alone doesn't create a lazy, zombie workforce.

    Here's some studies and theories arguing the opposite:

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33705159/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficiency_wage

    https://wol.iza.org/uploads/articles/275/pdfs/efficiency-wages-variants-and-implications.pdf

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