Leaked Microsoft pay data shows how much hundreds of employees report making in AI, cloud, and other teams

Microsoft employees are once again comparing notes on pay, and this year’s numbers offer a rare look inside how the tech giant is rewarding its workforce in the age of AI.

An internal spreadsheet viewed by Business Insider, with nearly 600 employee submissions, details base salaries, raises, cash bonuses, and stock awards across the company as workers learn what they’ll earn for the year.

The employee-reported data show how Microsoft is rewarding talent across its sprawling organization at a time when retaining its most skilled people, especially in AI and cloud, is a key strategic priority.

The data also provides an unusual snapshot of Microsoft’s compensation strategy at a pivotal moment for the company.

As the company pours billions into AI infrastructure, it is also competing with Meta, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and a growing crop of well-funded startups for the engineers and researchers who can determine whether those investments pay off.

Compensation, particularly stock awards that can dwarf annual raises and bonuses, is one of the clearest tools Microsoft has for recruiting and retaining those workers.

Microsoft employees typically share this information voluntarily and anonymously to promote pay transparency, but that means the data isn’t official or comprehensive.

The company had 223,000 employees on June 30, so a spreadsheet with nearly 600 submissions provides a very small snapshot.

The company also recently cut thousands of employees in a fresh round of layoffs in July.

Employees with higher pay or seniority may contribute less to such spreadsheets, so the pay ranges may skew lower than might be representative of the total workforce.

Business Insider removed entries that seemed anomalous.

Business Insider’s analysis excluded levels and teams with few entries, as well as submissions with unusually small or large entries that may be typos, since the data is self-reported and may contain errors.

The spreadsheet also included pay by organization, showing how much employees report making by team.

Business Insider last year reported Microsoft’s internal pay guidelines, revealing how much the company generally offered new hires in engineering and research roles in the US.

Contact Ashley Stewart via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242.

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