Microsoft employees' pay details have surfaced in an internal spreadsheet reviewed by Business Insider, offering a rare look at how the tech giant compensates its workforce.
The spreadsheet includes base salary, bonus, and stock compensation data from nearly 600 Microsoft employees. It covers levels 59 through 67, which represent the company's most common technical and engineering roles. Business Insider removed entries with unclear job titles or from groups with too few responses to be statistically meaningful.
The data shows base pay ranges for each level:
Beyond base pay, employees receive annual bonuses and stock awards that vary by level. At the highest levels, bonuses can reach $110K, and stock awards can climb to $300K or more.
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The spreadsheet shows that total compensation - combining base pay, bonus, and stock - can reach well above $600K for senior employees at level 67.
Microsoft had about 223,000 employees as of June 30. The company conducted layoffs in July, affecting a small portion of its workforce.
The pay data comes as Microsoft competes for engineering talent with companies like Meta, Google, OpenAI, and a wave of well-funded startups in the AI space. The company has invested heavily in AI technologies and partnerships, making retention of top technical staff a priority.
The spreadsheet was shared with Business Insider by a current Microsoft employee. Microsoft declined to comment on the leaked document.
The leaked figures provide context for those retention efforts because they show what Microsoft actually pays in some of its most important technical roles. The data is not a complete picture, since it covers only a fraction of the company's roughly 223,000 employees, but it does suggest that Microsoft is willing to offer competitive pay at senior engineering levels. For top employees at level 67, total compensation can reach above $600K, a level of pay that matters as AI-focused rivals and startups try to poach experienced talent.
The spreadsheet offers a rare public snapshot of Microsoft's pay bands at a time when compensation is a key retention tool. That positions Microsoft to compete in AI and cloud computing, where experienced technical staff are in especially high demand.
The most interesting insight from this leak is the wide range of pay within each level, which indicates that performance, experience, and role-specific factors can significantly influence an individual's compensation. For employees and job candidates, this data serves as a useful reference point for salary negotiations, while for industry observers, it provides a concrete look at how one of the world's largest tech companies allocates its investment in human capital. The transparency also puts pressure on Microsoft to ensure its pay structure remains fair and competitive, especially as it continues to expand its AI and cloud services.
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