Microsoft's salary system has been exposed: the minimum annual salary is 300000 yuan, with a difference of 35 times between the upper and lower limits! One-third of employees are dissatisfied with low treatment

Xinzhiyuan Report

Editor: Run

Introduction to New Intelligence ElementA Microsoft internal salary file has been leaked, with a minimum annual salary of 300000 and a maximum annual salary of nearly 10 million! But it is still the bottom tier position for major manufacturers in the United States

The salary of most technology companies is confidential, even though most employees only know the salary of their position.

However, recently, an internal document of Microsoft's salary system was accidentally leaked, detailing Microsoft's latest salary system.

According to the disclosure, this salary system is Microsoft's salary system at the beginning of this year, with a total of 17 levels!

The minimum annual package only includes an annual income of $42500 and there are no other rewards.

The top 70 level job package includes a salary of $361500, a recruitment bonus of $1.2 million, and an annual stock reward of approximately $1 million. 35 times the lowest gear!

However, for stock rewards, employees do not receive actual stock ownership and only receive a certain proportion of cash when the stock can be redeemed at maturity, which is generally much higher than the promised stock value.

So the amount of Microsoft's stock is equivalent to a delayed cash reward.

There is a huge difference in salary levels among different levels

According to Microsoft insiders, the specific salary received by employees will also be related to their work area. The overall salary for positions located in New York and San Francisco will be higher than in other regions, as the cost of living in these two places is relatively high. Generally speaking, engineers' salaries are also higher than those of other positions.

For high consumption areas, the lower limit of average wages is nearly 50% higher than in low to medium consumption areas.

According to job rank, the median distribution of basic salary roughly shows this trend.

In this 70 level system, the average software development engineer is rated at level 59, with a salary of:

Basic salary: $74000 to $11000. A one-time stock reward of 3000 yuan is offered upon entry, with a special approval rate of 30000 yuan. The maximum annual stock reward is 12000 yuan.

The position of 'Senior Software Engineer' has been upgraded to level 63, with a salary of:

The basic salary ranges from 110000 to 170000 yuan, with a one-time stock reward of 17000 yuan for entry. Special approval can reach 200000 yuan, and the maximum annual stock reward is 44000 yuan.

The position of 'Chief Software Engineer' is rated at level 65, with a salary of:

The basic annual salary ranges from $144600 to $216600, with a one-time bonus of $36000 for stock upon entry, with a maximum of $300000 for special approval and a maximum range of $90000 for annual stock rewards.

The position of 'Partner level Software Engineer' is rated at level 68, with a salary of:

The basic salary ranges from $186000 to $291000. The one-time stock reward for onboarding is $177000, with a special approval of up to $1 million. The maximum annual stock reward is $490000.

However, most job positions do not have a salary rating of up to level 70, while technical positions are generally considered "outstanding engineers" if they can be rated at level 70. The rated salary is:

The basic salary ranges from $230000 to $360000. A one-time reward of 310000 yuan will be given upon entry, with a maximum of 1.2 million yuan for special approval. The maximum annual stock reward is 940000 yuan.

For engineers, there is a special salary level of 80 above the 70 level, which is specifically assigned to "executive level engineers". The exact salary amount is unknown.

There is a significant difference in treatment between different types of work

Overall, there are significant differences in salaries among different types of work, with the highest average salary being in supply chain related positions, with a median basic salary of $220000.

The median basic salary for the lowest job is $80000, but the difference between relatively lower paying jobs is not significant.

From a promotion perspective, there is still more room for promotion for men.

The economic environment determines the level of wages

In 2022, when the overall economic environment was good, Microsoft raised salaries for employees under the level of 67 by issuing stock incentives.

The purpose is to alleviate Microsoft employees' dissatisfaction with other large companies' continuous salary increases and Microsoft's stagnant salary.

A company internal survey that year showed that 37% of employees believed that Microsoft's work was not cost-effective.

And we can also hope to retain employees who have resigned due to high salaries at other large factories.

Especially many employees have resigned from Microsoft due to salary reasons, and most have gone to Amazon, where the salary increase was nearly double that year.

However, due to the recent economic downturn, the CEO of Microsoft has informed all employees through an internal public letter that there will be no further salary increases this year.

However, in the context of large-scale layoffs across the industry, as long as one can maintain their job, the possibility of a salary increase or not is not very important for the time being.

According to data from the salary comparison platform Levels.fyi, the basic salary of Microsoft software engineers is indeed lower than that of most large companies, especially for junior engineers, which is far lower than that of Amazon, and there is also a significant gap between Microsoft and Apple.

References:

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-pay-guidelines-salary-hiring-bonus-stock-levels-2023-10