For Oklahoma Companies on Fortune’s ‘Best’ List, It’s Not Just About Big Salaries

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

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Four Oklahoma Companies made Fortune’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work for” list.

What do Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy, American Fidelity Assurance and QuikTrip have in common? Not surprisingly: great pay and cool perks.

But there’s something else at work here. And it’s not just super-sized salaries, corporate campus coffee shops or on-site dry cleaners.

The annual pay for the most-common salaried jobs at Oklahoma’s Fortune four are big, ranging from the $178,305 per-year average for an engineer at Devon, to $69,383 for a store manager at QuikTrip.

But the great pay isn’t just limited to the salaried set: Hourly employees of Oklahoma’s Fortune four make great money, too.

For example, the most-common hourly job at Oklahoma City-based American Fidelity Assurance is a customer service representative, according to Fortune. The typical, time card-punching customer service worker there takes home $44,135 a year — that’s 18 percent higher than what the average Oklahoman took home last year.

The average annual wage in Oklahoma was $37,246 in 2011, according to the state Employment Security Commission. Here’s how Oklahoma’s Fortune four compare when it comes to their non-salaried employees.

Annual Wages: “Best” Oklahoma companies vs. average

Average annual wage in Oklahoma for 2011: $37,246