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Leaked Salary Spreadsheet Reveals Microsoft Employee Earnings for a Second Year (medium.com) 44

An anonymous reader shares a report: Over the course of August 2020, more than 300 Microsoft employees shared their salaries, bonuses, and stock awards in a Google spreadsheet to continue their push for fairer compensation. "You are legally protected to share this info, and you should share it so your coworkers can determine if they're being underpaid; however, you should still exercise caution," the Google Form to submit information reads. Sharing compensation data has become an annual tradition at Microsoft during this time of year, when full-time employees are notified of any raises or bonuses. Last year, more than 400 employees similarly shared their salaries, OneZero reported. The employees who respond to each year's survey are mainly based in Redmond, Microsoft's Washington headquarters. By the last day of August 2020, 310 employees had added their data to the spreadsheet. Microsoft employs more than 150,000 employees around the world.

Employees shared their previous base salary, any cash bonuses, other bonuses paid out in stock, and merit-based increases in salary. This year's spreadsheet also included two new questions: one asking whether the employee was a person of color, and another asking whether the employee felt marginalized or at risk of being marginalized due to their gender or gender identity. Microsoft's latest diversity report showed the company was mainly white and male, especially at the highest levels. At Microsoft, like most tech companies, seniority and compensation is based on a person's level. At Microsoft, the levels start at 59 and go beyond 80. Microsoft's senior positions start at level 63, according to the crowdsourced tech compensation website Levels.fyi.

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Leaked Salary Spreadsheet Reveals Microsoft Employee Earnings for a Second Year

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  • Disruption (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:11PM (#60466940)
    Shame shame. Disruption is only for corporations to make more money, not for the common man to unite.
  • by Krishnoid ( 984597 ) on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:20PM (#60466968) Journal

    more than 300 Microsoft employees shared their salaries, bonuses, and stock awards in a Google spreadsheet

    But I'm not quite sure exactly what it is.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm sure what it is. If you are going to post information that you are legally entitled to do, but that companies (including the one you work for) have tried for years to convince you is not allowed, you'd best do it on a platform not under your company's control. So instead of putting it on SharePoint or OneDrive - which Microsoft could shut down - you put it on Google Drive. I'd imagine if Google employees were doing something similar they'd want it to be outside of Google's control too...
    • That means, look Google, can you do better?
    • more than 300 Microsoft employees shared their salaries, bonuses, and stock awards in a Google spreadsheet

      But I'm not quite sure exactly what it is.

      What it is, is that for the second year running the data shows that women don't make less than men.

  • The real news here is that there are no less than 67 employee levels at Microsoft. I mean, that should be enough for anybody, right?

    • well unions may not like that!

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Their level system starts at 59 for engineers in the US. There's historical reason for it. They used to have fewer levels, they basically doubled the number of levels but to disambiguate between old levels and new levels they added an offset of 50. The first 4 levels (which map to 51-58) were for support staff that didn't get paid as much, and no longer use the same level system anyway. Realistically US engineers go from 59-70 with 63 being a common career top-out point.

      Source: had a friend who worked

  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:25PM (#60466990)

    As a slashdotter I am getting paid a salary of $0 in spite of the fact that I post the best and most Insightful and/or Informative comments on here.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    the levels start at 59

    Wut. Who invented this scale?

    • historical. As the company grew they had to rejig things, so they set the new baseline to start at 59 rather than confuse it with the previous one. the majority of staff will be in the 59-65 range. Anything above that is in exec roles.
  • Microsoft salaries on a Google spreadsheet.

    • Microsoft salaries on a Google spreadsheet.

      How long do you think that spreadsheet would stay up if Microsoft were hosting it?

    • by Hall ( 962 )

      Microsoft salaries on a Google spreadsheet.

      That was my main takeaway about this too !

  • by GregMmm ( 5115215 ) on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @05:33PM (#60467354)

    At a Fortune 500 company the group I worked with shared their salary information. Also it made it good to know where you were. On the other side there were people we made more than us who I wouldn't consider using as compost in my garden.

    Moral of the story? I made good money, and I don't really care if someone else makes more than me. They were in the right place at the right time. Some people will get upset and "cry" about not making as much as so and so. Do you contribute the same to the company? Who knows, but the best way to find out is to simply say I want a raise and back it with results. If you're not satisfied and you're a high achiever, there will be plenty of other companies who will want you. Then your current employer will get to decide how much they want you. That's how it works.

    What I usually find is the people who complain the most, are the ones who are less than a high achiever. They want the pay, because they've been here for a certain amount of time or they have the same job title. Also, they don't usually have the skills to move from one employer to another, so they sit.

    So if a list appears like this, and you want to know where you rank next to some of your peers, do it. You own your career. You own your employment. Empower yourself to get more money, or move on. Who knows after you move to another job, the old one might come crying back to you.

    • by Hodr ( 219920 )

      *Not Valid in Hawaii and Alaska, Void where prohibited (unions shops).

    • Hell I work for the state. I have my name, position, and annual salary posted online and printed in the newspaper (remember those?) on a fairly regular basis.

      But HR still has an official policy that prohibits discussion of individual pay rates.

    • What I usually find is the people who complain the most, are the ones who are less than a high achiever. They want the pay, because they've been here for a certain amount of time or they have the same job title. Also, they don't usually have the skills to move from one employer to another, so they sit.

      This. I worked at a small company, where most people earned pretty close to the same salary. It was a good salary, not great, but absolutely fine.

      I was a good performer, as were most employees. There were a co

  • by MMC Monster ( 602931 ) on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @06:41PM (#60467578)

    So 0.2 percent of the employees do it and it becomes news?

    I know the salary information of a higher percentage of people at my work (and they know mine). We did group negotiation and signed our contracts in front of each other (and passed them among our selves).

    • So 0.2 percent of the employees do it and it becomes news?

      I thought that was odd, too. I just checked the 2020 salary spreadsheet at Google, and the percentage is about 5.3%. Over a thousand (including me, actually) even shared their name along with their data. I think the willingness of people to share tells you quite a bit about the openness of the culture.

      • I just checked the 2020 salary spreadsheet at Google, and the percentage is about 5.3%

        Actually, 5.94%. I fat-fingered the calculation when I did it. Which was unnecessary because it's calculated in the spreadsheet.

  • HR Internal Spreadsheet Security Manager:
    - Last Year: $192,000
    - This Year: Null

  • They should have also asked how many hours per week they're working. Would be interesting to see how that varies with salary and level.

  • whether the employee felt marginalized or at risk of being marginalized due to their gender or gender identity.

    The white males said yes on this? Do we ignore them or ridicule them for it?

    • by Cederic ( 9623 )

      Also interesting: The news is that minority employees feel marginalised or at risk of being marginalised.

      The news is not that they're being paid less, or getting lower raises.

      Which tells you a lot.

  • Now Microsoft knows who to fire for not using Office 365.
  • 1- They don't trust Microsoft Office 365 privacy.
    2- They don't trust Google Spreadshet privacy.. BUT it's ok in this case because they can receive a better offer... ;)

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