The New Yorker’ John Cassidy looked over the balance sheets of Apple and Goldman Sachs to decide which company offers the best return on its capital. Cassidy used the latest earnings reports from the two American companies, then calculated that the two had similar profit margins but very different economic returns. Each company’s return on assets was examined, determining that Apple is twenty times more profitable than Goldman Sachs.

Apple is more profitable for a few a few reasons - it makes highly desirable products that people spend their hard-earned money on. There’s always a huge demand all Apple products so they can decide their margins (usually high ones) which are well over the cost of manufacturing; thus giving them a nice profit on every iDevice or Mac sold.

Apple pays its employees significantly less as well; they don’t publish labor costs but a job search website, Simply Hired, found that Apple employees make an average of $46,000 per year. This salary includes both in the Cupertino HQ and in Apple’s retail stores.

Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, pays an average salary of $430,700 to its 36,000 employees. Don’t call Apple cheap either; Goldman Sachs has very high executive pay that is contributing to their average salary. Apple also has many mid to low-wage employees like janitors, sales associates and others.

Apple employees still make 46,000X what their CEO makes; Steve Jobs’ annual salary has been $1 since 1998. Plus, Apple employees get tons of perks like working for Apple, getting early access to awesome hardware, freebees, discounts and knowing that your helping contribute to a great company with a great initiative … and white iPhones.

[via TUAW]