Microsoft Is Giving All Its Employees $1,500 One-Time Bonus For Working Through Challenging Fiscal Year

Microsoft is rewarding all its employees for pulling through a tough pandemic-struck year, as learned from a report by The Verge. According to an internal memo seen by the website, Microsoft is giving a one-time bonus of $1,500 (roughly Rs 1,12,000) to its employees “in recognition of the unique and challenging fiscal year that Microsoft just completed.” Microsoft’s chief people officer, Kathleen Hogan announced the gift to employees on Thursday, July 8. The company is gifting this bonus to all staff below corporate vice president level that started on or before 31 March 2021, including part-time workers and those on hourly rates.

Now, this bonus does not include employees of LinkedIn, Github, and ZeniMax, despite Microsoft owning these three companies. Microsoft has 1,75,508 currently. Given the figure, the one-time bonus may cost the company over $200 million (roughly Rs 1,490 crores). This, according to the report in The Verge, is less than two days’ worth of profit for Microsoft. This comes after similar gestures from tech giants over the past year. Facebook last year gifted its 45,000 employees $1,000 each (roughly Rs 75,500), Amazon, on the other hand gave a $300 (roughly Rs 22,400) holiday bonus for frontline workers. Microsoft also says that it has 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. This was a result of businesses flocking to cloud services, a boost in laptop sales due to increased remote work, and strong gaming demand.

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