Microsoft Employees' Salaries Leak: $111k to $245k+ Pay Ranges

A recently leaked spreadsheet has revealed the varying salaries of Microsoft employees at different levels of seniority.

The spreadsheet, obtained by Business Insider, contains voluntarily-disclosed pay rates from over 600 Microsoft employees. The tech giant employs more than 220,000 people overall, but this data still provides a valuable snapshot into life at one of the largest tech firms.

Microsoft uses a job level system to determine career tiers, which results in wildly varying salaries. For instance, at levels 59 and 60, equivalent to entry-level software engineers, base pay ranges from $111,000 to $155,500. Cash bonuses in this range could be as low as $0, but some reported them as high as $25,000.

Compared to the US median income of $53,010 in 2025, these figures are staggering. Even compared to starter wages for similar entry-level engineers, Microsoft appears to be on the high-end, with ZipRecruiter flagging an average starter salary of just under $105,000.