NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Employee Reviews about "pay"

Cons

Low pay and quite stressful at times

Cons

- Pay is not that competitive but it did cover my expenses for the summer just fine - Parking and transportation can be a bit stressful if you don't arrange things properly

Cons

Not much research going on at JPL

Cons

Space is very crowded. Most employees are in cubicles and shared offices like graduate school except very few exceptions in single office. Buildings are old. Not enough parking space. Located in remote area and difficult to get outside for lunch. Similar to government job, no real flexible working schedule except 9/80 work schedule. Working environment is a pitfall.

Cons

The pay is so low in comparison to what is required to live in the immediate area. There should NOT be multiple mid-level employees having to get roommates just to live nearby the Laboratory. Micromanagement here and the need to be in the office often just to “look” like you are working is awful. There’s also no room for advancement as all the positions are filled by older folks (50+years old) and the only way to move up is if someone quits or someone dies. The culture here is filled with nepotism, sweeping harassment (racism, micro aggressions,etc.) towards minority and women. They have “listening sessions” but they don’t do ANYTHING about it. People play it off as “that’s just how ____ is” instead of holding people accountable. There are literally entire families that work at JPL and the only reason why their children work at JPL is because the parents work there. There is also no paid maternity leave.

Cons

Compensation is not tied to performance, but is based on the idea of 'salary management'. Management is very concerned with keeping compensation somewhat competitive with what similar institutions are paying. However, there is not much consideration of financial reward for performance. Some IT technical decisions are based on organizational culture or politics rather than technical merit. While one technology may be a perfect fit for a project, another choice is often selected to avoid making some organizations or people unhappy. Promotions are based on who you know rather than what you've done. It takes forever to get things done. There is quite a bit of process control and bureaucracy in place here. Wading through the red tape makes even simple tasks very complex

Cons

The pay is not quite as nice as it would be for a similar position in the private sector. There is also quite a bit of institutional inertia.

Cons

extremely challenging and the pay wasn't very high

Cons

Felt that I didn't do as much software development as I was hoping to do. Pay is very low especially for the location and there was a lot of downtime but this can be a good thing as well.

Cons

Parental leave is paid through your sick and vacation hours and via the state. If you run out of hours your pay will get cut to the state minimum which is hardly affordable nearby. HR will make you spend 40+ hours on the phone with the state government just to get paid each week, and give you conflicting answers when you ask for help in the first weeks of being a parent. If you really want to move up quickly you have to wait for the people above you to retire. Given that there are people working there until their 80s that can be a while. They have massive turnover in employees age 35-40. When you look at everything going on in the tech and robotics world today JPL is not as unique a place as their HR department claims.