Facebook or Google? Here's the difference between working at 2 of the best employers in America

Dragan Radovanovic/Business Insider

If you're faced with the decision of whether you should accept a job at Facebook or Google, congratulations — you are one of the privileged few.

Both employers rank in the top five on this year's list of the 50 best companies to work for in America, based on exclusive data from PayScale. And both are extremely competitive in their quest to hire the best and the brightest.

Once you've passed the intense interview process at each respective company, a number of awesome perks, great compensation, and most likely extreme contentment in your new job await you — but which job do you choose?

To make your decision a little easier, here's a head-to-head comparison of how Facebook and Google stack up as employers:

Googlers make more money

Google — recently renamed Alphabet in a corporate restructuring — topped Business Insider's annual list and dethroned Facebook (ranked No. 5), which held the top spot in 2015, thanks in part to its competitive compensation.

According to PayScale, the median salary of experienced workers is $140,000, the second highest on the list. At Facebook, the median salary of experienced workers is $135,000.

It's worth noting that two people in the same role at Google can be paid drastically different amounts, and this is intentional.

"It's hard work to have pay ranges where someone can make two or even 10 times more than someone else," writes Google HR boss Laszlo Bock in his book, "Work Rules!" "But it's much harder to watch your highest-potential and best people walk out the door. It makes you wonder which companies are really paying unfairly: the ones where the best people make far more than average, or the ones where everyone is paid the same."

Facebookers are happier

Employees from both tech companies are pretty happy to be there, but Facebook has the edge over Google with a satisfaction rating of 97% compared to Google's rating of 86%, according to employees who completed PayScale's survey.

"Every morning when I go in, I feel like the luckiest guy on earth for ever landing a job here," writes a Facebook data scientist in Menlo Park, California, on Glassdoor. 

There are a lot of contributing factors to Facebook's high level of happiness, but one important reason stands out: Facebook trusts its people.

Don Faul, a former Facebook executive, recently told The Wall Street Journal that, compared to Google, which he says is more structured and places more importance on "manager" titles, Facebook employees are often placed in roles that cater to their strengths and are encouraged to question and criticize their managers.

And this kind of freedom is perhaps one of the best drivers for employee engagement.

"You get zero credit for your title," he said. "It's all about the quality of the work, the power of your conviction, and the ability to influence people."

Googlers are less stressed

If you're in the market for a stress-free job, you'd be better off avoiding the tech industry altogether. But while it's unlikely for many techies to consider their jobs relaxing, more Google employees report low job-stress levels than Facebook.

While 12% of employees report their job isn't stressful at Google, 7% of Facebook employees say the same thing.

Perhaps one contributor to lower stress levels at Google is the various perks like on-site massages, free fitness classes and gym memberships, and a generous vacation plan that help employees unwind.

Another possible contributor: "The work environment is laid back, and less competitive than others. It really allows room for creativity," writes a Google product manager.

While the work at Google is inevitably demanding, and the company encourages its employees to set ambitious goals for themselves, Bock says Google managers don't expect people to meet these goals, and instead they make a point to help people learn from their failures. 

What's more, the company has a unique way of preventing backstabbing.

"The way we solve the 'backstabbing' problem, for example, is that if you write a nasty email about someone, you shouldn't be surprised if they are added to the email thread," Bock writes. "I remember the first time I complained about somebody in an email and my manager promptly copied that person, which forced us to quickly resolve the issue. It was a stark lesson in the importance of having direct conversations with colleagues!"