Looking for a well-paid career in technology? We have listed the best paying companies: should you make a bid for eBay, search for jobs at Google or connect with LinkedIn?

For young professionals in the technology industry, securing a position at a top company like Google or Facebook may appear to be the Holy Grail for their career. However, individuals have never been able to see beyond advertised salaries, job descriptions and brand image to see exactly what a career in a specific company might hold until now. Constantly championing transparency, Emolument.com can reveal how much some of the best paying tech companies pay for various job roles, specialisms and experience levels, highlighting some eye-opening trends.

Software and internet-focused companies offer the highest salaries to junior employees in the industry, with hardware company HP paying just half of the average junior salary at LinkedIn. This trend appears to highlight a recruitment strategy by some of the leading employers to attract the most talented young developers.

As a brand, LinkedIn arguably doesn't have the same level of prestige or glamour as Google or Facebook, which may explain why they pay junior employees salaries as much as 20% higher than other top tech peers, in order to attract the right kind of talent. Similarly, Amazon has previously faced high profile criticism for its poor working conditions, but offering attractive salaries for junior employees will go some way to establishing the company as a desirable employer for technology talent.

This study was compiled from data submitted anonymously by over 46,000 individuals in order to access their own personal salary benchmarking report.

It is not just at the lower levels of the organisation where salaries vary between the major technology players. For example, senior employees at Apple earn around 10% more than their counterparts at rivals Microsoft:

Salaries for European Senior employees (10+ Years of experience)