Leaked pay guidelines reveal that Microsoft employees can be awarded over $1million as a hiring bonus, $1million in stock, in addition to over $300,000 as a base salary.

The banding system sees new hires receiving different levels of pay ranges for base pay, hiring bonuses, and annual stock awards. According to Business Insider, the guidelines were published earlier this year and are used by hiring managers to decide how much to offer new hires, according to a person with direct knowledge of the process. READ MORE