Working in big tech might not make you rich. Here’s why

As per recent leaked data, software engineers at Microsoft can earn as much as $340,000 per year, plus various benefits. At Meta, they seem to be getting even a bigger buck. But even if you get half a million dollars, does it make you rich? Especially, given the fact that most of the high-paying jobs are in California, where rent for a decent apartment is as high as $6,000.

Tech talent, especially pros specializing in prospective fields like artificial intelligence (AI), is in high demand. But they are so expensive that more and more Silicon Valley companies seek skilled workers across the Atlantic, in Europe, where they can hire them for a fraction of the salary they have to pay in the US.

In London, Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude models, is ready to pay senior talent as much as $458,000 annually.

Freshly leaked data from Microsoft shows that software engineers there could get a basic salary of $340,000.

And Meta, which has just frozen AI talent hiring because of the investor scrutiny, pays some talent $500,000.

To most of us, it’s an unimaginable sum of money. However, if you compare even the highest of salaries to what they have to spend living, for example, in California, the illusion of rich tech company workers quickly fades.

Microsoft at a glance

The information provided by Business Insider categorizes the data based on teams but focuses predominantly on 300 US software engineers.

For the sake of simplicity, Cybernews will compare the highest salaries of Meta and Microsoft’s software engineers.

According to the data, the highest paid software engineer at Microsoft would belong to, you probably guessed it, the “Cloud+AI” team.

The base pay varies wildly, as engineers, depending on seniority, experience, and other factors, could earn anywhere between $128,000 and $340,000.

Let’s say you’re a very senior software engineer working in the Cloud+AI team, you could be looking at a cool $340,000 per year. That’s excluding the potential $60,000 cash bonus, and $100,000 stock award.

However, as Business Insider noted, employees who receive a higher salary or are higher in seniority level are less likely to contribute to these spreadsheets. So don’t expect numbers from any Microsoft executives.

If we’re looking at the higher end of these numbers and assume that you’ll receive your bonus and stock award, then you could potentially take home around $500,000 per year.

Although not guaranteed. So let’s stick to the base wage.

Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and at the time this article was written, is hiring a senior software engineer in the city.

A single person living in a one-bedroom apartment in the city center can expect to pay $2,300 per month, that’s without utilities, according to Numbeo, an independent cost of living calculator that relies on users inputting data.

That sets a Microsoft employee back $27,600 per year for a modest apartment in Redmond.

For a basic apartment, basic utilities, and a frugal food shop, you’re looking to spend $40,000 per year to just exist; this is excluding transportation.

To fill your tank in Redmond, it’s around $4.27 per gallon, so to fill the average tank may cost you around $62. Factor that in multiple times per week, you might end up spending thousands of dollars on gas per year.

But then factor in health insurance, which costs around $7,000 per year on average, according to Forbes.

While big tech companies usually provide health insurance, employees may need to pay out of pocket for healthcare expenses, making the cost of healthcare if company-sponsored significantly less than $7,000. So bear that in mind.

A single person’s phone bill could cost almost $200 per month, according to the compensation and software data company Payscale, meaning that those in Redmond could look at spending $2,400 a year for a premium phone alone.

Then you’ve got taxes. For a single taxpayer earning a basic salary of $340,000, they’d be expected to pay around $101,000 in taxes per year.

All of that combined could see a Microsoft employee paying between $140,000 and $170,000 yearly to live and work in Redmond.

So, if you’re earning the highest base wage of $340,000, you might be able to live quite comfortably, in a basic sort of way.

Meta’s numbers

A senior software engineer at Microsoft could potentially take home, in total, $500,000 per year if they pay their cards right. But that doesn’t really compare to Meta’s maximum offerings.

Back in July 2025, Business Insider told the world how much Meta was spending on its employees.

At Meta, the highest paid software engineers could earn a base salary of $480,000, that’s almost as much as Microsoft’s highest paid software engineer, without any added extras.

A job listing on Meta Careers shows that a “software engineer (machine learning)” can earn between $185,644 per year and $200,200 per year, including bonuses, equity, and benefits.

It’s not clear how much Meta employees would get in bonuses and equity, but we can assume that these, combined with Meta’s highest base salary, would most likely exceed $500,000.

Earlier this year, Fortune reported that Meta approved bonuses of up to 200% for executives, meaning that high-ranking software engineers could earn a lot of money at Meta.

Furthermore, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed to be offering new top talent in his superintelligence lab pay packages of up to $300 million over four years, with over $100 million overall for the first year, according to Wired.

At the time of writing, Meta is hiring on-site software engineers in its Menlo Park offices.

But how much is it to live in Menlo Park – the home of Meta’s headquarters in sunny California?

For a very basic one-bedroom apartment in the city, a Meta employee is looking to pay $3166, roughly $250 on basic utilities, and $700 on food per month, according to Numbeo.

The price of gas is roughly $4.64 per gallon, according to Payscale, meaning that an average tank of gas will cost around $67. Depending on their driving habits, a person could expect to pay nearly $3,500 per year to travel to and from work.

Furthermore, Payscale estimates that in Menlo Park, California, the average phone bill is over $300 per month.

If we factor in healthcare as before, that’ll be an extra $7,000, and taxes could be around $119,000.

In total, a Meta employee would look at paying over $182,000 per year to live a very basic life.

While it definitely does seem like a lot of money to be earning at Meta and Microsoft, if you aren’t top AI talent being poached from OpenAI, then you might not be earning as much as you think.

If you’re going off the job listings Meta had at the time of writing, you still might just be able to cover your bills in the upper pay range of $200,200 per year.

So, let’s forget the illusion that working for Microsoft and Meta will make you rich. Because, like most companies, it benefits executives, not average tech workers.