Microsoft has 175,508 employees worldwide
Microsoft is giving all its employees a $1,500 (over Rs 1.12 lakh) pandemic bonus, in recognition of a challenging fiscal year that the tech giant just completed.
According to The Verge which has seen an internal memo, Microsoft is gifting the bonus to all staff below corporate vice president level that started on or before March 31, 2021.
However, employees of its subsidiaries LinkedIn, GitHub and ZeniMax are not eligible for the pandemic bonus, the report added.
“It’s a gift of around $200 million, or less than two days’ worth of profit for Microsoft”.
Earlier, Facebook gifted its 45,000 employees $1,000 each and Amazon gave $300 holiday bonus for frontline workers.
It follows similar employee gifts from big companies over the past year, including Facebook gifting its 45,000 employees $1,000 each, Amazon’s $300 holiday bonus for frontline workers, and BT gifting its 60,000 employees £1,500 each (approximately $2,000). Vox Media, owner of The Verge, also gifted employees a $1,000 bonus late last year.
Microsoft says it has also donated “more than $98 million of assistance to nonprofits in Washington state” since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with plans to commit an additional $60 million in support by July. Since the pandemic started, Microsoft has generated at least $160 billion in revenue, thanks to a mix of businesses flocking to cloud services, a boost in laptop sales and Windows usage, and strong Xbox growth.
