Microsoft is handing out a $1,500 USD pandemic bonus to its employees.
According to The Verge — which has seen an internal memo from the tech giant — the company is giving out this one-time bonus to its employees “in recognition of the unique and challenging fiscal year that Microsoft just completed.” The firm’s chief people officer Kathleen Hogan says that all employees below corporate vice president level are eligible as long as they were employed on or before March 31 of this year. The bonus will also apply to those working part-time or on hourly rates and will be available in the U.S. and all across the globe. With roughly 175,500 employees internationally, the company is expected to spend around $200 million USD on these bonuses.
On top of the new handouts to employees, Microsoft also says that it has donated “more than $98 million USD of assistance to nonprofits in Washington state” since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and it plans on donating another $60 million USD by the end of this month. The company itself has brought in more than $160 billion USD in revenue over the same period, largely due to increased sales of PCs in light of work-from-home arrangements as well as increased cloud service reliance from businesses.
Elsewhere in the tech industry, Google is facing yet another antitrust lawsuit from 37 states over its Android Play store monopoly.
