Does Elsevier pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Elsevier employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.6 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Elsevier. This rating has improved by 2% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Elsevier?

79% of Elsevier employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Elsevier 4.5 out of 5 for work life balance, 4.3 for culture and values and 3.6 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Elsevier?

Software Engineer (78) , Senior Software Engineer (63) , Account Manager (61) , Product Manager (55) , Journal Manager (49) , Project Manager (37) , Publisher (30) , Director (29) , Editor (28) , Manager (23) , Sales (22) , Editorial Project Manager (21) , Marketing (18) , Software Engineer III (18) , Data Scientist (16)

What are the pros of working at Elsevier according to real employee reviews?

"Flexibility and good work/life balance" ((in 284 reviews)); "You get the chance to work with great people that are very driven and know their subject area very well." ((in 164 reviews)); "Great employees and colleagues" ((in 142 reviews)); "Great company and team to work for." ((in 56 reviews)); "Customers shows lot of respect to the company good work culture" ((in 43 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Elsevier according to real employee reviews?

"We're continued to be asked to develop "world class content" with third world resources and insultingly low salaries." ((in 102 reviews)); "the pay is low but everything else was great" ((in 85 reviews)); "Management on the corporate side is poor with very little business development experience." ((in 82 reviews)); "level and higher managers result in poor leadership and decision" ((in 56 reviews)); "There are also bad managers and seemingly no easy way to reduce their impact on the staff for whom they are responsible." ((in 47 reviews))

What are employees saying about Elsevier layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Elsevier layoffs and their outlook for job security at Elsevier in 2026.

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Elsevier

Part of RELX

Elsevier reviews

4.0

79% would recommend to a friend

(2,188 total reviews)

Kumsal Bayazit

90% approve of CEO

75% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

4.5

Work/Life balance

4.4

Diversity & inclusion

4.3

Culture & values

3.6

Senior management

3.6

Compensation and benefits

3.6

Career opportunities

Elsevier has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,188 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Elsevier employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Audiovisual y medios de comunicación industry (3.7 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

2K reviews

3.0

Nov 3, 2014

Big corporation with employees around the world

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible, great work-life balance, good benefits

Cons

Too many layers; communication issues

5.0

Oct 30, 2014

Elsevier is a great place to work

It project manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Good people Good salary Stable company Good benefits

Cons

Management by committee Loses focus on the customer

3.0

Oct 12, 2014

Was a good firm (according to people that had worked there for over 10 years)

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Good & friendly work colleagues, based in an excellent London location. Also, a renowned company to be with if you're specifically looking for experience in the publishing sector. Whilst not everyone has heard of Elsevier, they will probably have heard of some of the publications that they produce. Fairly good employee benefits (i.e. pay & pension).

Cons

Like most large companies during times of recession, Elsevier decided to tighten up it's business, taking away responsibility from local offices, and focusing more on a central management approach (largely from the US). From speaking to colleagues who had been there for over 10 years, they had seen how Elsevier had gone from a smaller publishing firm, with good employee relations, a focus on local production and a certain amount of local autonomy, to merging/buying up/bought out with other companies to become a much larger, generic, corporate entity. Even in the relatively short time that I was there, you could see the changes, including the redundancies.

Viewing 1996 - 1998 of 2,188 Reviews

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