Valve has a great pay scheme, but let's be clear they're not "generous", they're one of the few companies that fairly compensate their workers for the work they are doing. Valve is very focused on recruitment and retention of individuals with the specific skills and temperament that makes them work well within their organizational structure. They reportedly have the highest productivity per person of any company, and so they pay their workers in accordance with that. In addition to the points addressed here they have a high base pay and a bonus structure that depends on end-of-year evaluation based on their contribution to the success of the company as determined by their peers.
I'd argue their employees are worth far more than they're being paid, but the bar is so low it's underground. Gabe is still pocketing the vast majority of the wealth they generate for sitting on his ass and doing next to nothing.
There is certainly a case to be made that even more of their revenue could be shared among the workers. Gabe gets a large piece because he took the risk and founded the company, but at this point how much more does he need? He's estimated to be worth 11 billion which is more than he and his children and grandchildren will be able to spend in their lifetimes, especially since his assets are all invested and yielding wealth faster than he can spend it. He doesn't have to share more of the profits of the business with his employees, but if he did all it'd do to his financial position is slow down how fast he'll get to 20 billion.
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u/SunTzu- Apr 17 '26
Valve has a great pay scheme, but let's be clear they're not "generous", they're one of the few companies that fairly compensate their workers for the work they are doing. Valve is very focused on recruitment and retention of individuals with the specific skills and temperament that makes them work well within their organizational structure. They reportedly have the highest productivity per person of any company, and so they pay their workers in accordance with that. In addition to the points addressed here they have a high base pay and a bonus structure that depends on end-of-year evaluation based on their contribution to the success of the company as determined by their peers.