Microsoft is reportedly giving employees a $1,500 “pandemic bonus” this year for the “unique and challenging fiscal year that Microsoft just completed.”
Initially reported by The Verge, citing an internal memo which says that the bonuses will be distributed to all employees below corporate vice president level that started on or before 31 March 2021. This also includes part-time workers and employees on hourly rates.
Employees based in the US and internationally will be eligible for the bonus as long as they meet the above criteria.
Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the bonuses to employees yesterday. The tech monolith currently has 175,508 employees worldwide, however, people working at LinkedIn, GitHub and game publisher/developer ZeniMax are not eligible for the bonus, despite all three being owned by Microsoft.
The total cost to Microsoft of the bonuses are expected to be about $200-million, which translates to less than two days worth of profit for Microsoft, writes The Verge.
“As a symbol of our appreciation for coming together as One Microsoft during a uniquely challenging year, we are proud to recognize our employees with a one-time monetary gift,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNET.
Last year, Facebook gave employees a $1000 bonus to help with the changes of remote working, and Twitter said it’ll reimburse employees for home office setup expenses and fees that parents are paying for extra daycare as it allowed all employees to work from home indefinitely.
Microsoft Reaches $2-Trillion Valuation
Last month Microsoft reached a $2-trillion market value, joining predecessor Apple, the only other US company to reach this valuation, in a very exclusive club.
The company was buoyed by betting its dominance in enterprise cloud computing with Microsoft Azure. Microsoft is seemingly set on continuing to release future enterprise software to users in a post-pandemic world.
Cloud computing has been a key focus for the company that has seen its significant recent gains.
Shaped by current CEO and Chair-of-the-board, Satya Nadella, Microsoft is now the largest seller of cloud-computing software in the world, counting both its infrastructure and Office application cloud units.
By Luis Monzon
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