Does OpenAI overpay workers?
Elon Musk’s AI firm, xAI, filed a 107-page complaint towards OpenAI in November, accusing the ChatGPT maker of “aggressively recruiting workers with gives of lavish compensation” and spending “$1.5 billion on personnel for simply 1,500 workers.” The precise variety of workers OpenAI has is unclear: In keeping with the worker database RocketReach, OpenAI has 4,768 staff members.
Musk alleges that OpenAI has tried to scale back competitors by “providing vastly inflated compensation” to herald extra AI expertise than it wants to stop rivals from hiring these folks.
So, what does OpenAI’s compensation appear to be, and is it actually as “lavish” or “inflated” as Musk makes it out to be? A new Business Insider analysis examined wage knowledge from specialty visa functions filed by OpenAI final yr.
Associated: Microsoft’s Salary Guidelines Were Leaked — Here’s How Much New Employees Make
The info applies to international employees employed by OpenAI on specialty visas, just like the H-1B, and gives a peek into the in any other case undisclosed pay that OpenAI gives its workers.
BI in contrast the specialty visa wage knowledge to the “prevailing wage,” or common wage paid to employees as decided by the U.S. Division of Labor. Workers employed on specialty visas should make at the least as a lot because the prevailing wage.
BI’s comparability reveals that OpenAI sometimes gives pay above the prevailing wage for a number of roles, together with communications and knowledge science positions. The 86 roles for which BI obtained specialty visa knowledge have salaries starting from $145,000 to $530,000 and paid, on common, 87% greater than the norm set by the Division of Labor.
Musk’s xAI provided an identical vary by comparability, paying 10 roles salaries starting from $250,000 to $500,000. Nonetheless, xAI’s salaries had been solely 37% greater than the common prevailing wage, indicating much less of a niche between anticipated salaries and pay that employees had been awarded.
How A lot OpenAI Pays
These are the highest 5 roles for which OpenAI paid essentially the most above the prevailing wage, in accordance with specialty visa knowledge. These jobs have the best % distinction between the common prevailing wage and the common wage at OpenAI.
1. Member of Communications Workers
Common wage paid by OpenAI: $286,000
Common prevailing wage: $95,098
P.c distinction: 201%
2. Member of Knowledge Science Workers
Common wage paid by OpenAI: $310,000
Common prevailing wage: $116,646
P.c distinction: 166%
3. Member of Product Workers
Common wage paid by OpenAI: $310,000
Common prevailing wage: $134,590
P.c distinction: 130%
4. Member of Technical Workers (Analysis & AI Programs)
Common wage paid by OpenAI: $399,545
Common prevailing wage: $176,123
P.c distinction: 127%
5. Member of Technical Workers (Software program Engineering)
Common wage paid by OpenAI: $289,373
Common prevailing wage: $141,001
P.c distinction: 105%
For the complete report, click on here.