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In today’s big news, an unofficial documentary examines pay packages across Microsoft, including the highly paid groups.
But first, AI will make profits.
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The Big Story
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Microsoft, Getty Images, Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
How much do you earn?
While it’s an uncomfortable question for many, some workers welcome pay transparency to see how their salary compares to their colleagues’.
Hundreds of Microsoft employees have voluntarily shared details about their salaries and promotions through private spreadsheets, Business Insider’s Ashley Stewart reported.
The document contains over 500 submissions from people who identify themselves as Microsoft employees in the U.S. Ashley broke down the numbers and calculated the average total compensation, base salary, cash bonus/stock awards and raise/bonus percentage for Microsoft software engineers this year across multiple levels.
It’s always interesting to see such a wide range of salary ranges at tech giants, but Microsoft’s salary data is especially intriguing given the company’s recent checkered history with salaries.
Microsoft increased compensation through stock grants and salary increases for all but its most senior employees in 2022, a move that comes in response to a growing number of employees feeling underpaid compared to tech companies like Amazon.
But the pay increases didn’t last long: Last year, Microsoft instituted a salary freeze and cut its bonus and stock-based compensation budgets, though the company reinstated performance-based raises this year.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Drew Ungerer/Getty Images, Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
Microsoft’s compensation data is another example of how big a bet the company is making on AI.
The average total compensation for software engineers in the new Microsoft AI organization was $377,611, at least $120,000 higher than the average across the rest of Microsoft’s organizations (Azure, Cloud and AI, Experiences and Devices).
The group was formed in March as a way to strengthen Microsoft’s consumer AI strategy, which includes its Copilot AI chatbot and Bing search engine, and is led by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleiman.
To be clear, this salary data is based on self-reporting by Microsoft employees, so it doesn’t paint a complete picture, but the pay disparity between Microsoft AI and the rest of the company is undeniable.
On the one hand, it’s understandable that Microsoft would be willing to spend big on AI talent: The company clearly believes AI is the future of the industry, and it’s not alone in that belief. With many deep-pocketed tech companies chasing a small pool of AI talent, prices are bound to rise.
But that doesn’t make it any easier to sell them to other employees, who work on products that power Microsoft’s business while their much higher-paid colleagues focus on less profitable endeavors.
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