Many of the happiest companies in the US have 2 key things in common

California, here we
come.
HubSpot

• How can you boost your chances of being happy in the
  office?
• The career site Comparably recently analyzed
  its data to find out what large US companies have the happiest
  workers.
• Most of the companies were California-based tech outfits.

Want to be happy at work?

Move out to California and get a job in tech.

Comparably, a compensation and careers site,
recently ranked what it found to be the happiest large companies in
the US.

It based the results on anonymous employee reviews of companies
with over 500 employees posted on its site between September 2017
and September 2018. At least 50 employees had to leave reviews
for a company to be considered.

Of the top 25 companies, 12 were based in
California. Red Bull GmbH is technically headquartered in
Austria, but its North American branch is based in Santa Monica,
California.

The Golden State’s splendid showing shouldn’t come as much of a
surprise. The vast majority of the happiest companies belong to
the tech sector, which is, of course, largely situated in
California.

Red Bull, International Flavors & Fragrances, Golden Hippo
Media, Starbucks, and Delta Airlines were the only companies in
the rankings that weren’t strictly tech-oriented, but even these
firms boast a significant tech aspect to their businesses. Eight
of the companies that made the rankings create and sell software
products. Five — Netflix, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and eBay —
are well-known consumer-facing tech giants.

So if the domination of tech companies explains why California
fared so well, then what explains the fact that tech workers are
so happy? The answer is pretty simple, at least in part: tech
jobs pay well.

In Glassdoor’s roundup of the 25
highest-paid occupations of 2018, 13 of the top jobs could be
considered straight-up tech roles. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
average systems software developer earns $127,230 a year in
California. And the average wage for a systems software developer
in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area was even higher,
coming in at $141,890 a year.

For perspective, the median annual wage for all US workers in 2017 was $44,564.

What’s more, research indicates that it’s not all about the
money. Forbes reported on a 2016 survey in
which 71% of tech workers said they felt they had a good
work-life balance, while 72% of respondents working in tech said
they felt appreciated on the job.

So if you’ve got the blues at work, consider brushing up on your
tech skills and looking west.