Microsoft gives $1,500 COVID-19 pandemic bonus to all employees across the world

Microsoft has decided to give all its employees $1,500 or around Rs 1.12 lakh COVID-19 pandemic bonus. The move is announced by the company recognising the challenging fiscal year that the tech giant has recently concluded. According to the internal memo obtained by The Verge, the Microsoft employees eligible for the bonus are everyone below the corporate vice president level that stated on or before March 31, 2021. The policy would also benefit the part-time workers along with those who are on hourly rates. 

Microsoft’s chief people officer, Kathleen Hogan reportedly announced the gift for employees on July 8 and the report stated that it “will apply to all eligible employees in both the US and internationally.” As of now, at least 175,508 employees are working for the company across the globe. Notably, the employees working under Microsoft’s subsidiaries including LinkedIn, GitHub and ZeniMax are not eligible for the pandemic bonus. Reportedly, the gift amounts to around $200 million, or less than two days’ worth of profit for Microsoft. 

In order to boost motivation among the employees after unprecedented challenges emerged last year due to COVID-19, several companies have taken a similar approach of bonuses and perks. While Facebook gifted its 45,000 employees $1,000 each and Amazon gave a $300-holiday bonus for frontline workers. Microsoft had postponed the reopening of its offices till September after it gradually reopened Redmond, Washington-based headquarters and nearby campuses from March 29. Presently, Microsoft worksites across 21 nations have been able to accommodate additional workers in its facilities that also represent around 20 per cent of its global employee population.

Microsoft donates $98 million of assistance to nonprofit

Further, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft has already donated “more than $98 million of assistance to nonprofits in Washington state since Covid-19 emerged and plans to commit an additional $60 million in support of local nonprofits by July.” Reportedly, since the pandemic began, Microsoft has generated at least $160 billion in revenue owing to the company’s mix of businesses flocking to cloud services, boost in laptop sales and Windows usage.

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