It’s been a weird and sometimes unsettling year for the tech industry. Some of the biggest names in tech, such as Meta and Google, have unleashed massive layoffs. Meanwhile, startups and midsize tech companies are trying to plot new strategies amidst economic uncertainty, the faster-than-expected evolution of A.I., and other upheavals.

Despite that chaos, though, tech companies remain among the highest-paying in the U.S., according to a new data analysis by The Wall Street Journal. As you can see from the following breakdown of median salaries, tech giants such as Meta, Alphabet and Netflix continue to dominate on payday:

This chart hints at a key fact about the tech industry: even amidst mass layoffs, rising interest rates and declining revenue, the biggest tech giants need the best and most highly specialized talent to carry out their strategies—and that means they need to continue paying high salaries and other types of compensation. In fact, Netflix is famous for paying many of its tech professionals well over the “average” for their skillsets… but those employees are expected to deliver outsized performance in return.

It’s a similar situation with smaller companies that are building their strategies around expensive initiatives such as data science and A.I. If you’re a hiring manager or team leader on the hunt for talent, you probably know the frustration of trying to compete for rare specialists against larger, deeper-pocketed companies. Fortunately, it’s not all about the money for many tech professionals: they also want a positive culture, great benefits and perks (such as training and education, remote schedules, and health insurance), and interesting projects.

Any company that can offer a great package has a solid shot at landing the best and most specialized talent. Meanwhile, tech professionals looking for their next great opportunity don’t necessarily need to gravitate toward the largest of the large tech companies: smaller firms can provide similar opportunities to do cutting-edge work, and their size means you could have even more influence over how a tech stack or product evolves.