Day: August 20, 2025

• Some Microsoft employees are sharing how much they make after raises and promotions.
• A spreadsheet includes more than 850 entries and counting, detailing salary, stock, and bonuses.
• Microsoft is trying to make its pay more competitive as it lures AI talent.

It’s the time of year when Microsoft employees start finding out about pay raises and promotions, and hundreds of them are sharing information about their compensation in a spreadsheet viewed by Business Insider.

The document has more than 850 self-submitted entries and counting, and includes how much these Microsoft employees report making in salary, bonus, and stock awards.

The competitiveness of Microsoft’s pay is particularly important now as it tries to lure top AI engineers and researchers to keep up the momentum that’s fueling its record earnings.

Microsoft is going after Meta’s AI talent with multimillion-dollar offers and released new pay guidelines this year with a carve-out to make its offers more competitive, as Business Insider recently reported based on internal documents.

The company has cut thousands of employees this year while insisting its headcount will remain flat, suggesting hiring plans continue.

Business Insider analyzed nearly 300 submissions in the spreadsheet from people who identified themselves as software engineers in the US to determine pay ranges and averages by level and organization. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment.

Microsoft employees typically share this information voluntarily and anonymously to promote pay transparency, but that means the data isn’t official or comprehensive. The company had 228,000 employees on June 30, so a spreadsheet with roughly 850 submissions provides a tiny snapshot.

Employees with higher pay or seniority may contribute less to such spreadsheets, so the pay ranges may skew lower than might be representative of the total workforce.

Business Insider’s analysis excluded levels and teams with fewer than three entries, along with submissions with unusually large entries that may be typos as the data is self-reported and may contain errors.

Much of tech industry compensation is stock-based, but base pay can be a useful way to compare different teams across the company. Here’s the average base pay in various Microsoft groups, per the numbers shared by employees in this spreadsheet:

• Cloud + AI: $204,135
• Commerce + Ecosystems: $191,597
• Security: $189,285
• Azure: $176,035
• Experiences and Devices: $175,123
• Microsoft AI: $170,456
• Xbox: $168,831
• CoreAI: $167,759

Business Insider recently reported Microsoft’s internal pay guidelines, revealing how much the company generally offers new hires in engineering and research roles in the US.

The self-reported ranges for base pay, bonus, and stock awards by existing employees in this spreadsheet generally skewed lower than the ranges listed in the official Microsoft guidelines for new hire offers.

Again, this could be because employees with higher compensation and seniority often contribute less to spreadsheets like this.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

• Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders made millions in the MLB and NFL before pivoting to coach college football.
• He said young athletes today shouldn’t pick a university based only on financial incentives.
• Recent changes to NCAA policies have led to a spike in transfers and huge paydays for NIL deals.

Deion Sanders knows how to build a multimillion-dollar career in sports.

As a dual-sport athlete, he built his brand through lucrative NFL and MLB contracts and massive deals with companies like Nike and Pepsi. After retirement, Sanders carved out an image as “Coach Prime,” netting additional brand deals, a high-profile analyst role at CBS, and coaching gigs, most recently with the Colorado Buffaloes.

His best advice for young athletes? Don’t chase money when you pick a college — no matter how tempting it may be in the new era of NIL.

“I would attend a university based on staff, based on likability, based on the location that I wanted to be at, and the situation that I think could elevate me to the next level, not solely based on finances,” Sanders told Business Insider in an interview through his partnership with California Almonds.

Since 2021, new policies have allowed players to monetize their personal brand with NIL deals. While college athletes previously could not profit from their name, image, and likeness being used in ads, video games, or merch, they are now entitled to a pay-out.

That has transformed the landscape of college sports. To stay competitive and land star athletes, colleges are increasingly pressured to offer massive paychecks and facilitate bigger and better endorsement deals. Economists have found that universities with generous donors and resources can offer more enticing support for players looking to sign with big-name brands.

NIL has become a billion-dollar business, and top earners pull in $3-$6 million annually, before even entering a professional sports league.

Over the same period, the NCAA has also changed its transfer policies, making it easier for athletes to switch schools. According to NCAA data, the number of students entering the transfer portal has spiked dramatically as a result.

The growing financial incentives and ease of transferring are making it more tempting to chase a better deal.

“I think that’s why the portal is so active,” Sanders said.

Previously, Coach Prime described his young athletes as “investment bankers” learning to thrive in a high-pressure environment and make the right moves to build wealth.

But Sanders told Business Insider he is concerned that today’s players are getting distracted by a short-term payday — scrambling for the best deals instead of prioritizing their long-term career in the sport.

“We have young men that listen to the wrong advice, and they’re basing things on everything other than the main thing, and that’s the game,” he said.

• Trump’s tariffs have led some companies to announce that they plan to raise prices.
• Even before his so-called “Liberation Day,” companies warned they would pass costs on to shoppers.
• Business Insider is tracking companies that have said they’ll raise prices due to tariffs — and those that already have.

Prices are expected to go up this year as many companies signal plans to raise them in response to President Donald Trump’s slew of tariffs.

While firms raise prices for many reasons, some were blaming price hikes on tariffs long before Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” on April 2. That’s when he announced a 10% baseline tariff on imports from most countries, except Canada and Mexico, and a host of “reciprocal” tariffs on top of that.

The situation is fluid, as various countries continue to negotiate potential trade deals with the US.

Some economists have said that Trump’s tariffs — and the uncertainty with his overall trade policy — could lead companies to raise prices on the goods they produce.

Here are the companies that have implemented or warned of price increases in recent months.

Adidas

Adidas said it will raise prices in the US because of a double-digit million euro hit from tariffs in the second quarter and a further predicted 200 million euro, about $218 million, cost from levies in the second half of the year.

Vietnam, which accounted for 27% of the German retailer’s total volume in 2024, will face a 20% tariff from August 1. Indonesia made 19% of Adidas’ products and will face a 19% tariff.

CEO Bjørn Gulden said in a statement accompanying Adidas’s latest results that the company doesn’t know “what the indirect impact on consumer demand will be should all these tariffs cause major inflation.”

AutoZone

Philip Daniele, the CEO of the auto-parts company AutoZone, told analysts on a September earnings call that tariff policies had “ebbed and flowed over the years,” and if Trump implemented more tariffs, “we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer.”

“We generally raise prices ahead of that,” Daniele said, adding that prices would gradually settle over time. “So, that’s historically what we’ve done,” he said.

A 25% tariff on car imports is expected to increase manufacturing costs by anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000.

Best Buy

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said during the company’s March earnings call that Trump’s tariff plans are likely to increase prices.

“Trade is critically important to our business and industry. The consumer electronic supply chain is highly global, technical, and complex,” Barry said. “We expect our vendors across our entire assortment will pass along some level of tariff costs to retailers, making price increases for American consumers highly likely.”

Camera makers Nikon, Canon, and Leica

Several big suppliers of photography equipment have announced their own price hikes.

“Due to the recent tariffs, a necessary price adjustment for products will take effect on June 23, 2025. We will be carefully monitoring any tariff developments and may adjust pricing as necessary to reflect the evolving market conditions,” Nikon said in an announcement in May.

In its first-quarter earnings call, Canon said it will raise prices but is still “in the process of estimating the timing and amount of the increase.”

At Leica, price increases across some product lines took effect May 1.

“This is not a Leica-initiated price increase, but a result of the newly enacted tariffs that began on April 5 on imported products, which are significantly impacting the cost of imported goods, including photographic equipment and optics,” Leica USA Trade Marketing and Product Communications Manager Nathan Kellum-Pathe said in a statement to Digital Camera World in April.

Conagra

Conagra Brands CEO Sean Connolly told Reuters on April 3 that the food company may have to hike prices to offset the cost of tariffs on ingredients like cocoa, olive oil, palm oil, and a type of steel used for its canned products.

Connolly said that Conagra, which makes products such as Hunt’s ketchup, imports tin plate steel for its canned food and tomatoes from Mexico.

It was too early to tell how big price hikes on the company’s food products would be, he said.

Columbia Sportswear

Tim Boyle, the CEO of Columbia Sportswear, told analysts on an October earnings call that the company was “very concerned about the imposition of tariffs. ” He said that while he considered Columbia adept at managing tariffs, “trade wars are not good and not easy to win.”

Boyle also told The Washington Post in October that the company was “set to raise prices.”

“It’s going to be very, very difficult to keep products affordable for Americans,” he said. He later said in a February interview with CNBC that “we need some surety about what is going to happen” before making price changes.

Macy’s

In its Q1 earnings report on May 28, Macy’s announced it was reducing its earnings outlook for the year because of several factors, including higher tariffs and consumers’ moderating their discretionary spending.

In a post-earnings call, Macy’s CEO, Tony Spring, added that the department store chain would be raising prices on some items to account for higher tariffs.

Spring said that higher “pricing is working its way into the system slowly,” adding, “That’s why we have taken a more cautious approach to our outlook for the year.”

The company’s COO and CFO, Adrian Mitchell, followed up to Spring’s comment. “We are not just broadly increasing price,” he said. “We’re being incredibly surgical about the situation with tariffs.”

He added, “We’re making selective price increase in selective brands, selective categories. So some of the impact on our gross margin this year is going to be around the tariffs.”

The news comes in the midst of Macy’s plan to close around 150 underperforming stores around the country by 2027 as it leans into expanding its luxury brands, including the high-end department store Bloomingdale’s and beauty chain Bluemercury.

Ferrari

Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari said in March it’d raise prices by up to 10% on certain models imported to the US starting April 2.

The change was made “based on the preliminary information currently available regarding the introduction of import tariffs on EU cars into the USA,” the company said.

Ford

Ford raised prices in May on some models produced in Mexico, Reuters reported based on a notice sent to dealers.

Bloomberg also reported that the automaker planned to raise prices on new gas and electric cars starting in May unless Trump gives the industry some relief from tariffs.

Ford, in a memo to dealers viewed by Bloomberg, said that the company anticipates “the need to make vehicle pricing adjustments in the future, which is expected to happen with May production.” Prices won’t change for vehicles in inventory now.

On April 14, Trump told reporters that he was contemplating a temporary tariff exemption for autos to give manufacturers more time to move production to the US — but no blanket exemption has yet been instituted.

Hermès

Eric du Halgouët, executive vice president of finance at the company, told analysts on a call in April that Hermès, the luxury retailer known for its iconic Birkin handbags, hadn’t yet been affected by the tariffs, but said the company would raise prices in the US in May.

“The price increase that we’re going to implement will be just for the US. Since it’s aimed at offsetting the increase in tariffs, that only applies to the American market,” du Halgouët said on the call.

Home Depot

Home Depot said during its August earnings call that tariffs will start affecting some price tags in the coming months.

“There’ll be some modest price movement in some categories, but it won’t be broad-based,” said William Bastek, the home improvement chain’s executive vice president of merchandising.

A majority of Home Depot’s products are sourced within the US, which means they aren’t subject to tariffs, Bastek said.

However, regarding some of the company’s imported items, he said, “tariff rates are significantly higher today than they were when we spoke in May,” referring to the company’s previous earnings call.

The company still aims to keep the cost of an overall shopping trip down.

“Our customers tend to shop for the entire project — you think about a small flooring project, tile, the grout, bathtub, and vanity in a bath project,” he said. “And so we’re laser-focused on protecting the cost of the entire project.”

Nike

Nike is planning to raise prices in order to offset an expected $1 billion additional tariff costs in the 2026 fiscal year, the company told investors in a June 26 earnings call.

“These tariffs represent a new and meaningful cost headwind,” said CFO Matthew Friend during the analyst call about Nike’s 2025 fiscal year.

The company said it plans to implement a “surgical price increase” starting this fall in the US, with “phased implementation.” The company hasn’t revealed which products will be affected, or by how much prices will increase.

Nintendo

While Nintendo’s Switch 2 console hasn’t seen a price hike due to tariffs, the company has raised the price of some earlier Switch models and accessories based on “market conditions.”

Other “price adjustments may be necessary in the future,” the company said in August.

Procter & Gamble

P&G, the consumer goods company behind brands like Tide and Charmin, is looking at raising prices on new and existing products.

CEO Jon Moeller told CNBC in April that price hikes were “likely.”

“We will have to pull every lever we have in our arsenal to mitigate the impact of tariffs within our cost structure and P&L,” P&G’s CFO, Andre Schulten, said on a call with reporters.

The company is evaluating “exactly what is the right plan by brand, by market, what combination of pricing, over what period of time,” Schulten said.

Shein and Temu

The two Chinese retailers released almost identical notices on April 16, both reading: “Due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs, our operating expenses have gone up.”

“To keep offering the products you love without compromising on quality, we will be making price adjustments starting April 25, 2025,” Shein’s statement said.

Shein, a fast-fashion retailer, and Temu, a marketplace for everything from home goods to electronics, promised their US customers eight final days of low-price shopping.

In addition to hiking tariffs on imports from China, Trump also cracked down on the de minimis trade loophole that allowed small parcels under $800 to enter the US tax-free. Shein and Temu were large beneficiaries of this loophole.

Stanley Black & Decker

Donald Allan, the CEO of the manufacturing company Stanley Black & Decker, said during a February earnings call: “Our approach to any tariff scenario will be to offset the impacts with a mix of supply chain and pricing actions, which might lag the formalization of tariffs by two to three months.”

Allan had previously told analysts in an October earnings call that the company had been evaluating “a variety of different scenarios” to plan for new tariffs under Trump.

“And obviously, coming out of the gate, there would be price increases associated with tariffs that we put into the market,” Allan said, adding that “there’s usually some type of delay given the processes that our customers have around implementing price.”

Target

Target CEO Brian Cornell told CNBC in a March interview that Trump’s 25% tariff plan on goods from Mexico and Canada would likely result in price increases on produce.

“Those are categories where we’ll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” Cornell said.

Some prices at the store have already gone up.

Volkswagen

According to a memo first reported by Automotive News, Volkswagen said it would place an import fee on vehicles made outside the US in response to Trump’s 25% tariff on car imports.

Kjell Gruner, Volkswagen’s North America chief executive, recently said the carmaker would keep prices steady through the end of May but that they could increase in June.

Walmart

On May 15, Walmart executives said price increases were likely to spike even higher, blaming Trump’s ongoing trade war.

“Even at the reduced levels, the higher tariffs will result in higher prices,” CEO Doug McMillon said during the company’s first quarter earnings call.

US sales were boosted by shoppers looking to beat tariff-related price hikes — but despite strong first-quarter results, Walmart’s chief financial officer, John David Rainey, said the extra costs are too great for the company to take on without passing part of the burden on to consumers.

“We’re wired for everyday low prices, but the magnitude of these increases is more than any retailer can absorb,” he said.

Meanwhile, Walmart workers have shared photos of price hikes being applied to store products.

How have prices affected you? Reach out to abitter@businessinsider.com.