Revenue Per Employee: The Top Companies Ranked

Revenue per employee (RPE) is a metric that businesses can use to measure the productivity and efficiency of their workforce. It is calculated simply by dividing overall revenue by the number of employees the company maintains.

RPE is not a perfect metric, as it can overlook the cultural impact and other intangible benefits of strong business health. However, it is a positive way to measure the benefits of the workforce by focusing on value rather than costs. And crucially, RPE also offers meaningful insights into a business’s efficiency over time by comparing figures across the year and over longer periods.

For example, construction procurement and engineering firm Quanta Services found that revenue increased twice as fast as headcount over a 15-year period of aggressive investment in “strategic people development initiatives” — vindicating what may, on paper, have looked like a costly policy.

There is no one-size-fits-all figure for a ‘good RPE.’ What’s more important is to track the performance of your own business’s RPE against itself and, where available, against peers and competitors in the same industry and under similar conditions. However, to illustrate the use and importance of the metric for business health, OnDeck has identified the U.S. and global businesses that have enjoyed the highest revenue per employee over the past year.

What we did

We sourced revenue and employee count data from the Forbes ‘The Global 2000‘ list and the 50 biggest fast food chains in America. For each company, we divided the revenue by the employee count to give the revenue per employee.

Key Findings: Revenue per employee rankings

• The U.S. company that generates the most revenue per employee is VICI Properties, whose 27 employees generate an average of $142,592,593 each.
• Globally, the employees of Indian mining company Rajesh Exports generate the most revenue each, on average: $307,117,117.
• NVIDIA is the big-tech company that makes the most per employee ($4,408,784).
• The fast-food company that makes the most per employee is McDonald’s ($172,800).

U.S. investment trusts earn most per employee — led by VICI Properties

First, we looked at the U.S. companies generating the most revenue per employee. Half of the top 20 are investment trusts, five are energy firms, and three are in the finance sector. The top one is VICI Properties, an investment trust that “acquires and develops gaming, hospitality and entertainment properties.”

There are only 27 people at VICI, but they generated a total revenue of $3,850 billion in 2024 — the equivalent of $142.59 billion per employee. The company was formed out of the bankruptcy of Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, part of the Las Vegas hospitality giant that had been the fourth-largest gambling company in the world.

VICI Properties is essentially a landlord of properties that it loans out to tenants, and most of these tenants are casinos and hotels in an extremely high-turnover environment. The casinos are responsible for their own fixtures, fittings and operations, keeping costs low for VICI. The lease lengths are long, allowing for an element of security and stability.

“[O]ur exposure to the Las Vegas strip, which constitutes almost half of our rent roll, and our willingness and our ability and excitement in investing in non-gaming categories, we think, gives us a growth, opportunity, and a total return opportunity that is truly compelling and differentiated,” says CEO Edward Pitoniak.

Troubled Indian mining firm has top revenue per employee globally

Next, we broadened our analysis to include global companies. At this level, just five of the top 20 companies with the highest revenue per employee are investment trusts (against 10 of the 20 top U.S.). Nine are in finance, and three are in mining or oil and gas.

Indian mining firm Rajesh Exports has the highest revenue per employee globally. With 111 employees contributing to $34,090 billion in annual revenue, the average employee brings in $307.12 million. This is 2.15 times as much as the second-placed company, VICI Properties (see above).

Rajesh Imports describes itself as “the largest constituent of global gold business” and the “only company in the world with presence across the entire value chain of Gold from refining to retailing,” processing 35% of the world’s gold.

However, in 2025, the company has struggled with corporate governance issues and is coming off the back of a period of losses. Founder and CEO Rajesh Mehta has also spoken of the potentially “chilling effects” of U.S. tariffs, noting that “more than around 2-3 million people are reliant on this industry for their livelihood.”

NVIDIA tops list of big tech firms’ revenue-per-employee

Next, we narrowed our analysis to the big tech firms. With 29,600 employees generating $130,500 billion annually, computer chip firm NVIDIA makes $4.40 million per employee. NVIDIA is profiting greatly from the AI boom, and in January 2025 reported revenue that was up 12% from the previous quarter and up 78% from a year ago.

Employees note the company’s “commitment to make sure its employees have good mental and physical health… It allows us to accept that we are human, not robots, not data points, but human compassion.” A survey of a small proportion of NVIDIA’s staff appeared to reveal that 76–78% of employees are millionaires due to their stock options. However, much of NVIDIA’s manufacturing workflow is outsourced to other companies.

Netflix nearly matches NVIDIA’s revenue per employee, at an average of $4.15 million each. But this is based on a much smaller workforce of 9,600, contributing to a total revenue of $39,870 billion. The streaming giant stopped sharing quarterly subscriber figures in 2025 to focus its business reports on revenue and profit.

In 2009, the company crafted an innovative HR approach to maximize the value and performance of its small staff, rejecting “top-down decision-making and annual performance reviews,” offering “unlimited vacation and loose expense policies,” and demanding “high-performance standards with frequent, frank feedback,” according to Harvard Business Review.

McDonald’s and Starbucks illustrate revenue/employee disparity

Finally, we looked at America’s biggest fast-food chains to see which are earning the most per employee. Starbucks’ total revenue is 39.35% higher than McDonald’s, but the cafe chain maintains 40.67% more employees. As such, with revenue of $172,800 per employee, McDonald’s has the highest revenue per employee, narrowly beating Starbucks ($171,185). According to employee feedback site Glassdoor, salaries at McDonald’s range “from $28,255 per year (or $14 per hour) for McDonald’s Cashier to $149,748 per year (or $72 per hour) for Senior Software Engineer. ”

At Starbucks, salary disparity has also become a headline issue. In September 2024, the coffee company gifted new CEO Brian Niccol a reported $100 million pay package to revive its fortunes, with his 2024-25 earnings equivalent to that of 6,666 times the average Starbucks barista salary, as calculated by Investopedia. Meanwhile, it is Starbucks’ ground-level employees that Niccol is driving to work faster, pay closer attention to detail and follow a new, restrictive dress code.

“They’re surveilling us,” barista Jasmine Leli told the New York Times. “You have no choice. If you say, ‘I didn’t have time to write on this cup,’ they ask, ‘Do you want to keep your job?’”

How to maintain a happy and productive workforce

To ensure a positive balance between revenue and workforce numbers, consider the following tips:

• Put health and safety first. This is not just a legal requirement but a moral imperative. Make sure your employees have everything they need to work safely and for their health — including their mental health — to flourish.
• Build an engaging and empowering company culture. RPE tends to grow as a company becomes established. Creating a workplace where people feel valued helps to retain talent — further allowing you to maximize their experience as you grow together.
• Provide purposeful work. People who don’t feel engaged with their work, leave. Provide meaningful work, help employees find the meaning within their work, and make sure to provide positive as well as negative feedback so staff feel their work does not go unnoticed.
• Support career development. The best method of recruitment is retention. Identify your employees’ potential, and give them the tools to be the best they can be, for the firm and for themselves.
• Pay fairly. Nothing discourages employees like seeing their income flatline while their company flourishes. Consider performance bonuses and other benefits, and acknowledge improved revenues with a wage structure that aligns with the broader context.

Running a business isn’t just about making money — but a happy team and a strong bottom line often come in tandem.

Methodology

To find out which companies generate the most revenue per employee worldwide and in the U.S., we sourced revenue and employee count data from every company on the Forbes 2000 list, plus a list of the 50 biggest fast food chains in America.

Data is correct as of August 2025.