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Leak of Microsoft Salaries Shows Fight for Higher Compensation
The numbers range from $40,000 to $320,000 and reveal key details about how pay works at big tech companies
Nearly 400 Microsoft employees are sharing their salaries with each other to better determine whether they’re being fairly compensated.
The effort stems from a private Facebook group, Young Microsoft FTE, where full-time employees (FTEs) gather to discuss the company. The salaries are collected in a shared Google spreadsheet.
“Share your anonymous info so we can all get paid more together,” reads a header at the top of the form.
The spreadsheet gives a detailed look at how compensation breaks down for some Microsoft employees. Data points include years of experience, years at Microsoft, percentage of merit-based raises, and base pay, as well as stock, and cash bonuses. Some employees also noted special stock dispensations, indicative of a signing bonus or a milestone achievement. The spreadsheet did not note gender, a category that is often used as a rallying point for pay transparency. The nearly 400 employees who entered their salaries are also just a small subset of Microsoft’s total workforce of 144,000.
Pay transparency is an enduring issue in…
