Big Pharma Paychecks Revealed: Gilead Leads with $239,000 Median Salary as Biotech Outpaces Traditional Drugmakers
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The average biopharmaceutical employee earned $116,648 in 2025, roughly 30% more than the average S&P 500 worker at $89,744, according to an Endpoints News study.
Gilead topped Big Pharma with a median salary of $239,000, while biotech firms like Alnylam ($312,000) and Ionis ($305,000) far exceeded even the most generous large drugmakers.
Johnson & Johnson, the industry's perennial revenue leader, ranked only 10th in median salary at $91,000, demonstrating that company size and profitability do not directly correlate with employee pay.
The pharmaceutical industry remains one of the most lucrative employment sectors in the United States, with the average biopharmaceutical worker earning $116,648 in 2025 — approximately 30% more than the typical S&P 500 employee, according to a comprehensive Endpoints News study. The analysis, which examined data from 181 public companies, reveals striking disparities between traditional pharmaceutical giants and their smaller biotechnology counterparts, with the latter often proving far more generous.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has required public companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to median employee compensation since 2018, providing a window into industry compensation trends. This year, Endpoints incorporated headcount data into its analysis to avoid distortions caused by small biotech firms with lean staffing structures.
Biotech firms dominate the top of the pay scale
Among all companies analyzed, Alnylam — a leading US biopharmaceutical company specializing in RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapies — claimed the top spot with a median employee salary of $312,000 per year. Ionis, the California-based pioneer in RNA-targeted therapeutics, followed closely at $305,000 annually.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, known for developing HIV drugs including amprenavir and fosamprenavir as well as the hepatitis C drug telaprevir, reported a median salary of $264,000. That placed the company ahead of Moderna, which despite declining COVID-19 vaccine revenues maintained its median pay at $225,000 per year.
Biogen, which focuses on drugs for multiple sclerosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and Alzheimer's disease, reported a median salary of $208,000 in 2025. Rounding out the top 10 most generous biotech employers was BioMarin, a company specializing in orphan diseases such as mucopolysaccharidoses, phenylketonuria, and hemophilia, with a median salary of $201,000.
Big Pharma's compensation landscape
Within the traditional Big Pharma cohort, Gilead emerged as the most generous employer with a median salary of $239,000 per year. Novo Nordisk followed at $175,000 annually, despite what the report described as "troubles and headcount reductions" at the Danish company. Notably, Eli Lilly — Novo Nordisk's far more successful rival in the metabolic disease space — pays only $125,000 a year.
Perhaps most surprising was Johnson & Johnson's position. The perennial revenue leader ranked only 10th in median salary among large pharmaceutical companies, with its typical worker earning what the report characterized as a "mere" $91,000 last year.
Industry-wide context and caveats
The 32 large biotech companies examined collectively employ just over one million people and hold a combined market capitalization of $3.88 trillion. The industry's compensation premium becomes even more pronounced when measured against the broader US economy: the average American income stood at $45,140 in 2024, while S&P 500 workers earned an average of $89,744 in 2025, according to an Associated Press and Equilar analysis.
The Endpoints report notes important methodological limitations. Most shareholder reports carry warnings that salary data across companies cannot be compared directly, as the SEC permits different methodologies for calculating pay and defining the typical worker. Some reports included health insurance costs and pension contributions while others did not, introducing variability into the comparisons.
Despite these caveats, the data paint a clear picture: the biopharmaceutical industry remains an exceptionally well-compensated field, though the link between company size, profitability, and employee pay is far from straightforward.