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Comment by mieubrisse | Hacker News Reader

The article didn't actually go into the detail of how much Valve pays.

From the leaked Valve handbook:

"Valve pays people very well compared to industry norms. Our profitability per employee is higher than that of Google or Amazon or Microsoft, and we believe strongly that the right thing to do in that case is to put a maximum amount of money back into each employee’s pocket."

Considering that a ten year veteran at Google can make $200k/year, in salary + bonus + stocks, I'm curious if Valve compensation can reach the same level. The Glassdoor page doesn't suggest it can, but people may not be reporting their bonuses or profit sharing.

$200K? a 10-year veteran at google had $80 IPO shares, $200 share grants, $400 share grants, $600 share grants...

You shouldn't use the appreciated price of stock grants when valuing compensation; you use the price at the time they are granted. (Still, 200k is very low; base salary would be in the ballpark of that figure, but stock/cash bonuses can push well past it).

I'm of the impression that people who contribute data to Glassdoor are the ones who are looking to change jobs or who want to bitch and moan. In other words, severe downward bias.

Not necessarily. At least in the case of my company, both the salaries and people's anonymous reviews are extremely accurate.

I don't think it's "leaked" - it's available at their official page http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/

Too, there seems to be a lower-than-expected paycap for people who work on games. I suspect this comes from the abundance of people who want to do it?

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