Microsoft Pay Spreadsheet Reveals Disparities Among Employees

Microsoft employees have been keeping track of their own pay in an internal spreadsheet, revealing significant disparities between different groups within the company.

The data shows that base salaries range from $111,000 to $280,000, with Cloud and AI roles reaching as high as $450,000. Raises across the sample ranged from 0% to 3.5%, which is at or below inflation levels.

What's more striking, however, are the differences in stock awards. Annual stock grants spanned from $10,000 to $1.4 million, with the top end concentrated among Cloud and AI employees. This has led to a situation where engineers working on generative AI projects receive significantly larger initial grants and out-of-band refreshers than colleagues at identical levels in other software groups.

The level system, which is meant to provide a standardized way of comparing salaries across different departments, no longer seems to apply. Engineers maintaining Windows, developer tools, and established cloud services are producing the cash flow that funds AI infrastructure spending, but they're not seeing a corresponding increase in pay.

This isn't unique to Microsoft, as companies like Anthropic have also been offering high salaries to attract top talent. However, what's specific to Microsoft is the contrast between this situation and its broader payroll trends, which include layoffs, voluntary retirement programs, and significant investment in AI capital expenditure.