Microsoft Doubles Salary Budget to Retain Staff as Cost of Living Rises

The same Microsoft that just issued 20+% pay cuts to everyone not living in a "high cost of living" area (CA, NY, WA)?

And staff are leaving? Wow. I didn't know that. I just uh... you're telling me now for the first time.

No they didn't. I talked with friends at Microsoft; what they did is increase the "merit" budget by up to double, and increase stock ranges by about 25%.

Merit is their annual increase in base pay, which is usually 2% - 4%, so doubling that means an increase in base pay of 4% - 8% which is still below the inflation rate.

Also, stock ranges are roughly 1/3rd of competition (see levels.fyi) so an increase of 25% is insultingly low (might as well be nothing at all).

None of the folks I talked to over there are happy about this and they said they'd been happier with no announcement at all instead.

Bloomberg is acting as PR agents. No Microsoft didn't do any of that. Not even remotely true

The headline is totally false

It seems this is a one-time opportunity for some engineers to catch up with inflation. It doesn't seem that Microsoft is adjusting it's salary ranges.

Put another way, starting to work at Microsoft, this year, will still be 11% less attractive than it was two years ago.

Microsoft seems to recognize (but not acknowledge) that it's not competitive in compensation, and seems to be reiterating its commitment to its current strategy.

Inflation is through the roof, it only makes sense.