Microsoft will give each employee a $1,500 bonus worldwide.

Microsoft is gifting its employees a $1,500 pandemic bonus. In an internal memo seen by The Verge, the software giant says this one-time bonus “is in recognition of the unique and challenging fiscal year that Microsoft just completed.”

According to The Verge which has seen an internal memo, Microsoft is gifting the bonus to all staff below corporate vice president level that started on or before March 31, 2021.

It will also include part-time workers and those on hourly rates.

The gesture is part of an effort by technology companies to keep employees happy during the pandemic and make sure they stick around while many are still away from offices. Such care could help reduce impact from a feared trend dubbed the Great Resignation as companies reopen facilities and workers consider job changes.

“Microsoft’s chief people officer, Kathleen Hogan, announced the gift to employees today, and it will apply to all eligible employees in both the US and internationally,” the report said on Thursday.

Microsoft has 175,508 employees worldwide.

However, employees of its subsidiaries LinkedIn, GitHub and ZeniMax are not eligible for the pandemic bonus, the report added.

“It’s a gift of around $200 million, or less than two days’ worth of profit for Microsoft”.

Earlier, Facebook gifted its 45,000 employees $1,000 each and Amazon gave $300 holiday bonus for frontline workers.

The bonuses will cost Microsoft about $200 million and are a gesture to show appreciation for efforts that employees made with customers and partners in the past year, a spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday, after The Verge first reported the news. At the end of the first quarter the company had over $125 billion in cash, equivalents and short-term investments.

Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the news about bonuses in a message to employees on Thursday. The bonuses will go out in July or August to employees in the U.S. and abroad, although Microsoft’s corporate vice presidents won’t receive them, nor will employees of Microsoft’s GitHub, LinkedIn and Zenimax subsidiaries, the spokesperson said.