Over 1,000 Microsoft employees shared their salaries in a leaked spreadsheet in a push for pay transparency. Here's everything we learned.
- Leaked Microsoft pay data and government filings give a rare glimpse into how much workers earn.
- Software engineers across business units took home a median pay package of $185,000.
Microsoft grew its employee base by more than 23,000 workers in 2021, seemingly unaffected by the woes of a tightening talent market for tech labor. In total, the enterprise software and cloud giant now employs nearly 190,000 workers worldwide, including about 107,000 in the US.
But how much is Microsoft — the most valuable company in the world — paying its employees?
Insider compiled data from leaked salary spreadsheets and visa applications to get a rare glimpse at just how much Microsoft employees are earning. The data reveals some of the highest-paying positions at the tech giant — and comes alongside employee reports of pay and promotion inequity.
Here's a look at current Microsoft salaries among senior executives, software engineers, and more:
Employees at Microsoft claim pay and promotion discrimination after leaking salary data
Dozens of women in technical roles at Microsoft started an email thread sharing stories about disparities in compensation and promotions at the company, and then compiled a pay spreadsheet to document the inequities.
More than 1,200 employees shared salaries in the spreadsheet, revealing how much employees, ranging in experience and department, earn each year. CSS, quality engineer, and solution architect roles earned the least, according to the data.
The data also shows promotion breakdowns by gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as how much pay rates range based on location. But some of the issues discussed went beyond salaries, and focused on the treatment of certain employees.
"Being kept out of meetings, having men on projects speaking over you, or deliberately ignoring ideas are quick and effective in their speed and subtlety," an employee wrote in the email thread.
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- Leaked Microsoft email chain shows women sharing stories of gender discrimination at the company: 'Women are all paid equally until the women who aren't prove it'
- Leaked Microsoft salaries revealed as over 1,200 employees compile compensation and promotion data in a shared spreadsheet to promote pay equity
Software engineers at Microsoft earn a median pay package of $185,000, according to leaked data
More than 600 employees in the leaked Microsoft spreadsheet self-identified as engineers at business units across the company, including Azure, Office, and Windows.
The sample isn't a fully representative view of Microsoft's compensation rates, but it does reveal a median pay package of $185,000 among software engineers, with employees in the highest-earning band making as much as $500,000.
Entry-level engineers earned a median compensation package of $132,900, and senior engineer earnings started at $217,000.
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- Leaked Microsoft pay data shows how much hundreds of software engineers report making in units like Azure, Office, and Windows — with a median pay package of $185,000
- Leaked Microsoft pay data shows how much hundreds of software engineers report making — from entry-level jobs up to senior-level ones
Microsoft's senior executives earned salaries as high as $250,000 last year
The Office of Foreign Labor Certification publishes salaries from H-1B visas each year, revealing how much companies like Microsoft pay foreign workers.
The data only includes base salary, not total compensation. But it provides a glimpse into wages Microsoft usually doesn't share.
Insider analyzed more than 1,400 of these visas to find the highest-paid roles at Microsoft. We focused on any titles earning $175,000 or more, with the highest salary going to a channel sales manager taking home $250,000.
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