How many approaches to mapping the best companies for average compensation reveal several critical insights about the American economy. You can see which professions tend to pay the most in different parts of the country. For example, there are two prominent yellow states across the Northern Plains and the Deep South. These states have several energy companies with extremely high-paying salaries. The same can be said about health companies (like pharmaceutical and insurance companies) across the country’s midsection.

How Much map also highlights a few surprises. For instance, a bank is the highest paying employer in both Alaska and Montana, not an energy company as one might initially expect. And in California, a health company called Geron pays its average employees better than any of the Silicon Valley giants. But keep in mind there are significant differences between the companies on our map.

At the high-end, NRG Yield’s average pay is $964k, and on the low-end, Union Bankshares from Vermont pays only $39,346. One reason for these discrepancies and surprises could be that companies are still releasing their figures since it’s a new rule; our data might change.

10 Highest-Paying Companies In America 2018

10. Lipocine

Lipocine is an international specialty pharmaceutical company that develops innovative pharmaceutical products for men’s and women ’s health using its proprietary drug delivery technologies. The Lipocine product development pipeline includes repositioning established drugs with improved patient compliance through an efficient 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway strategy.

States: Utah
Salary: $299,612
Industry: Health

9. Capstead Mortgage Corporation

Formed in 1985 and based in Dallas, Texas, Capstead is a self-managed real estate investment trust for income tax purposes is a corporation that invests in a residential adjustable-rate mortgage (“ARM”) pass-through securities issued and guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises, either Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or by one of the agencies of the federal government, Ginnie Mae.

States: Texas
Salary: $300,000
Industry: Real Estate

8. Chesapeake Lodging Trust

Chesapeake Lodging Trust is A real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investment in upper-upscale hotels in business and other convention markets and, on a selective basis, select-service hotels in urban settings or other locations in the United States has been in business since June 12, 2009. It operates through the hotel ownership segment.

States: Maryland
Salary: $347,750
Industry: Real Estate

7. Intra-Cellular Therapies

Intra-Cellular Therapies is a biopharmaceutical firm developing novel drugs, leveraging technology from the laboratory of Nobel laureate Dr. Paul Greengard, to treat neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases using its lead drug candidate, lumateperone, to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depressive disorders.

States: New York
Salary: $354,916
Industry: Health

6. Esperion Therapeutics

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. is a public pharmaceutical company with the mission to create the first of its kind, orally available, small molecule for significantly lowering elevated levels of LDL-C with a low potential for muscle-related side effects associated with statin use.

States: Michigan
Salary: $409,294
Industry: Health

5. Arlington Asset Investment Corp

Arlington Asset Investment Corp is a principal investment firm that acquires and holds a levered portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities, including agency MBS and private-label MBS, called Capstone Real Estate Company.

States: Virginia
Salary: $483,502
Industry: Financial

4. Infinity Pharmaceuticals

Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines for people with cancer in the United States. Its product candidate is IPI-549, an orally administered clinical-stage immuno-oncology product candidate that inhibits the enzyme phosphoinositide-3-kinase gamma (PI3K-gamma) in Phase 1 1b clinical study.

States: Massachusetts
Salary: $495,513
Industry: Health

3. Geron Corporation

Geron Corporation is the erapeutics that specializes in the development and production of cancer treatment regimens designed to inhibit telomerase.

States: California
Salary: $500,250
Industry: Health

2. VirnetX Holding Corp

VirnetX is a company founded by former engineers and executives from Science Applications International Corporation, which developed security technology for the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies.

States: Nevada
Salary: $562,062
Industry: Technology

1. NRG Yield

NRG Yield, Inc., the holding company incorporated on December 20, 2012, is a Corporation. It is segmented according to the traditional means of power generation (conventional generation), renewable businesses, which consist of wind and sun, and the thermal and chilled water business.

States: New Jersey
Salary: $964,005
Industry: Energy