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Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

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Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#111
post #20

I wonder if this could be fallout from the ABK deal being blocked? If I understand correctly, they "owe" ABK $2.5-3B in the event that the deal doesn't close?

I think the bigger costs are/will be associated with AI plays. I would guess MS is protecting the war chest for some bidding wars.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#112
post #8

Correct headline: Microsoft cuts salaries for 2023. Even in a good economy inflation and cost of living increases are a thing.

I never understood the idea that salaries should be expected to always be corrected for inflation, and that not doing so is somehow secretly a "salary cut". Salaries are driven by supply and demand, and individual companies (maybe not Microsoft though) can generally only afford to raise them by a given amount. If that amount is less than inflation then that's that, right? Most companies (again, maybe not Microsoft th…

Companies "conjure up money out of thin air" by increasing prices and passing the cost on to consumers.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#113
post #35

Perhaps its a false dichotomy, but I'll take a pay freeze/cut over a layoff any day.

I don't necessarily disagree, but fundamentally I think this will lead to "anyone who can find a higher-paying job will find a higher paying job." Part of what's enticing about these "blue-chip" megatech corporations like Microsoft or Apple is that they pay good salaries. Most work at these companies is not interesting (at least it wasn't at Apple), but you stay because the pay is good. If the pay is shit, I'll take…

A lot comes down to what life stage employees are in. Someone with fixed monthly costs and kids in school is not going to want to a) move and b) deal with the anxiety of working at a start up.

Probably companies are banking on that.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#114
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be better if you didn't over hire. I can't speak for MSFT. But a lot of tech companies definitely hired to banana town. Cutting would be better than freezing salaries.

Yes a lot of companies hired a lot more. A lot of money also got distributed in this process which otherwise wouldn't have. Laid off employees got some work experience out of it. Better than nothing. I don't get this stuck up argument again and again Why did they hire before? As if there is some really great answer that can reveal itself by repeatedly asking this question. > Cutting would be better than freezing sala…

i thought the answer was Jack welch philosophy of management: always overhire and then prune 10% of your workforce every year. the theorey goes that way, you keep the best and loose the rest. But, that assumes that employees are interchangable like cogs which isn't true. plus, most companies aren't necessarily able to determine who's best and worst and may even end up laying off those who are better.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#115
post #10

Yet CEO's bonus in 2022 was 20x bigger than his salary. I don't think it will be less this year either; with all-time high stock price and these "cost cuts", he will be wholesomely rewarded.

We all do what we need to do to be rewarded. I'm sure some employees will be getting bonuses.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#116
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having friends and former colleagues who work in the "yuppie Wall Street job", it doesn't pay the obscene salaries you think it does, even at the major hedge funds and investment banks, even in NYC and Chicago. The number of super-high NFT development jobs is vanishingly tiny. Most jobs at trading and investing firms for developers pay the same or even less than elsewhere. Sure, if you're a Calypso or Endur or Murex…

Fair enough, I was thinking about companies like Jane Street, paying starting wages of about $200,000/year for engineers [1], and I've seen a few other trading places offering similar wages. When I was at Apple, my base pay was $175,000 when I left, with about $60,000/year of stock. I've never worked for Microsoft but I assume that the pay is comparable to Apple Entirely possible that the quantity of trading jobs ava…

> Entirely possible that the quantity of trading jobs available isn't nearly as high as something like MS though.

Yes, exactly. Other companies like Jane Street definitely exist in the finance space and pay really well but collectively hire far fewer engineers than FAANG + FAANG-like companies do. The thing I like about them though is that most of the time their comp is all cash (salary + bonus) so you don't have to wait around for anything to vest before you can move on, if you so desire.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#117
post #40

Wondering how long it’ll take for other tech companies to copy this move and pretend that they independently arrived at these conclusions after their meticulous macroeconomic analysis.

Is it not better/preferable to freeze salaries than to cut more staff? From a morale PoV, from a human PoV, except maybe not from an individual PoV, overall.

I think everyone agrees with that value statement, the problem seems to be that no one else is interpreting this announcement that way. You would need to expect that the companies future was at risk, whereas I think most people are expecting that this is nakedly squeezing and anticipate collusion from competitors. As I understand it there is a documented history of that already.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#118

Reposting a comment from Reddit[1]: Microsoft has been bleeding talent for the last 5-6 years due to low compensation. It's why the SLT authorized a "correction" in pay last year that saw many people get a significant pay bump. Lots of new college hires have even stated that Microsoft's offer was the lowest offer they received. Levels.fyi tells basically the same story as well if you compare Microsoft to many other t…

> Microsoft has been bleeding talent for the last 5-6 years due to low compensation.

I have been hearing this for awhile now. When I compare MS pay and benefits to what is on offer at other companies, almost the only jobs I see with better TC are at Meta and Google. And that will likely not be a thing of Meta's future.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#120

And yet, at exactly this time last year: "Microsoft to Nearly Double Salary Budgets, Expand Stock Compensation" https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensatio... So they are freezing after the doubling? This behavior seems skittish and an overreaction, especially given their continued profitability and high margins. Corporate executive behavior reminds me of interacting with ChatGPT: Exec: "What should…

They didn't double the salary budget, that was such a well played PR bs by MS. They doubled the "salary increase" budget for lower levels (so instead of getting a 1% increase per year, they'd give out 2% - to the lower levels).

I talked with a friend at MS and they said not only are they not getting any increase at all this year, the stock and bonus are going down to (or even lower than) last year's levels (before this supposed "expansion").

Kinda sucks...

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