Nintendo makes more per employee than Google

Mario's workforce is serious pay dirt.
By Ben Silverman

If you work at Nintendo, you know how to make money. For Nintendo, that is.

According to the Financial Times, each employee at the game giant earns the company a whopping $1.6 million in profit. That number trumps the 2007 estimations for both high-powered investment bank group Goldman-Sachs ($1.2 million) and Internet powerhouse Google ($626,000).

The FT attributes Nintendo's profit per employee success to the fact that the company only employs about 3,000 permanent workers, yet routinely outsells the competition with its enormously popular DS and Wii platforms. Outsourcing helps, too -- the Wii is manufactured elsewhere, and many high-profile games are handled by outside developers with Nintendo producers overseeing the projects.

But working with Mario isn't necessarily all its cracked up to be. The FT article further reports that while each Nintendo employee generates well over a million for the company, the average salary is a far more humble $90,000, with the bulk of profits going to shareholders. By contrast, the average Goldman employee walks with over $600,000, nearly half of what they generate. Which game would you rather play?