Netflix and Google among the highest-paying companies in the US where median salaries top $140,000 (but you've got to be a top lawyer or programmer to get hired)

• Netflix offers median salary of $180,000
• Corporate law firm Skadden Arps came in on top with $182,000 median salary for 4,500 employees
• Google, the by far the biggest employer, ranks 13th

By Michael Zennie For Daily Mail Online

Published: 12:49 EST, 14 April 2015 | Updated: 12:49 EST, 14 April 2015

The top-paying companies in America have been revealing - and film-streaming service Netflix is near the top of the pile, paying a median of $180,000 a year.

The other boldface name in the group is Google, which comes in at no. 13 and pays an median of $143,000 a year.

But to make it on to the payrolls of these top companies, workers needs to be highly educated, highly skilled or highly connected - sometimes all three. 

They fall into three categories - tech companies, law firms and consulting firms. 

Netflix has come a long way from its days of mailing DVDs to subscribers across the country. Its 2,000 employees have a median salary of $180,000 now

Nine of the top 15 companies are in the tech sector, according to salary data compiled by the recruiting company Glassdoor.com. These firms are competing furiously to hire and retain the relatively small number of top-notch computer programmers who make Silicon Valley such a magnet for money.

Consulting and law firms rely on relationships with clients and so once employees establish themselves, they become more and more valuable and command higher salaries. 

Wall Street law firm, Skadden, Arps, one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the nation, comes in at the top of the list. The median compensation there there is $182,000. 

Skadden has 4,500 employees - more than 1,800 of whom are high-grossing attorneys.  

Netflix, which has 2,000 employees, comes in second. 

Management consultants take the three spots - Strategy&, McKinsey & Company and A.T. Kearney all pay $160,000 median salaries.  

Mozilla, the company that oversees the Firefox web browser and TureCar, which lists car sales, are both on the list.

Other than Google, Netflix, Mozilla and TrueCar, most people have likely not heard of the companies of the highest-paid list. 

The companies are also mostly small and midsize. Nearly all of them employ fewer than 5,000 people. Some just a few hundred. 

Google, which has 53,000 employees, is by far the largest employer on the list.  

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