TL;DR: Intel recently shared a presentation with its employees saying that it’s increasing its compensation budget by over $2 billion. The new budget has added $1 billion of wages and $1.4 billion worth of stock compensation. Most of it will go to current employees, but some will be used to attract new hires.
Intel said in a statement that pay restructuring was “designed to enable Intel to win the fierce battle for talent in today’s competitive market,” according to The Oregonian, which saw the presentation. It will “reignite” their culture and “drive” the company’s business strategy.
In Oregon, which houses some of Intel’s largest manufacturing facilities, the company pays about $4.6 billion annually to its 21,000 local employees. Globally, it has around 110,000 employees.
The new budget has added $1 billion of wages and $1.4 billion worth of stock compensation. Shared evenly it would come out to about $20,000 per employee.
It will, however, be directed disproportionately to employees with specialized knowledge and to high performers. Intel might be worried about its competitors poaching talent, which is something Intel is itself infamous for.
According to various company-review sites, historically Intel has had a habit of underpaying its technicians. Intel’s meager annual raise features prominently in negative reviews of the company. The atmosphere on Intel’s manufacturing line is also said to be tense; lately, in particular. To that end, Intel wants to relieve some of that tension with more paid time off and mental health support services.
Intel needs to make itself more appealing if it wants to attract enough workers to staff its many planned expansions, which include a $3 billion addition to its Oregon campus, a $7 billion fab in Malaysia, their third Irish fab, and a planned fab in Germany.