It has been revealed that virtual reality developers at Meta are earning salaries ranging from $500,000 to as much as $1 million.
An anonymous source within the company has revealed that high salaries are standard, as Meta seeks to source and retain the very best metaverse talent available.
While Meta makes thousands of jobs cuts across its divisions in what Mark Zuckerberg calls the “year of efficiency,” skilled developers in its metaverse teams are earning astronomical sums.
The big bucks
Patrick McAdams, chief executive of technology recruitment firm Andiamo, told the Washington Post on Friday that Meta is significantly outspending its competition.
Meta is “paying significantly more than a lot of gaming companies,” he confirmed.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that their total compensation is double or more than double of what you’ll get at a large gaming company.”
According to McAdams, $500,000 plus salaries are not out of the ordinary, with the best packages awarded to highly skilled developers and technical team leaders.
The cost cuts
Even as Meta is happy to pay well over the odds for the very best talent, the company is attempting to trim the fat elsewhere.
In March, Zuckerberg revealed that 10,000 roles would be cut from the firm. A further 5,000 open roles would also be closed as the company reviewed its hiring procedures.
Speaking at the time, Zuckerberg said: “This will be tough and there’s no way around that.”
The company previously cut 11,000 jobs in November of last year. Meta’s core business, which relies heavily on advertising revenue, has been weathering a number of storms of late. In October 2022, a unilateral change in Apple’s terms of service undercut Meta’s business model.
Macroeconomic conditions have also been less than favorable. Zuckerberg now admits that the firm hired too aggressively during the lockdown when social media usage was at its peak.
Even as some lose their jobs, there are others at the firm doing very well indeed.
Paying over the odds
Former HR staff at Meta have confirmed the company tends to pay above the odds, not only for its metaverse developers but in other positions as well. This is part of a wider corporate strategy to outspend competitors as a means of retaining the best staff available on the market.
One former Meta recruiter confirmed, “They pay way above market rate for a lot of roles,” so that, “if we provided an offer there wasn’t a lot of competition.”
While Meta is more than happy to outspend their competitors to retain top talent, the pot of money isn’t limitless. Last year the company filtered around 20% of its overall funds into the metaverse, indicating the strength of feeling Zuckerberg has toward this evolving industry sector.
The investment strategy is a long-term one. Meta has publicly confirmed that it expects that it will take a number of years before all of its investments in the metaverse truly start to pay off.
In the meantime, the resource-rich company continues to outspend its competitors. According to data from Levels.fyi, VR developers in the top 90th percentile at Meta earned an average of $538,800. Developers in the same percentile at Apple earned $495,000 and at Google $440,000.
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