Bloomberg Report Reveals Blizzard Employees Are Underpaid

Blizzard Posted 2020/08/03 at 7:39 PM by perculia

as reported by Jason Schreier for Bloomberg NewsEdit: Alleged Spreadsheet with Salary Information

One employee then created a spreadsheet and encouraged staff to share their compensation information. The anonymous document, reviewed by Bloomberg News, contains dozens of purported Blizzard salaries and pay bumps. Most of the raises are below 10%, significantly less than Blizzard employees said they expected following the study.

One veteran Blizzard employee told Bloomberg News they received a raise of less than 50 cents an hour. They are making less now than they did almost a decade ago because they are working fewer overtime hours than they did back then.

Several former Blizzard employees said they only received significant pay increases after leaving for other companies, such as nearby rival Riot Games Inc. in Los Angeles.

#gamedevpaidmeSouthern California has an extremely-high cost of living

In internal messages reviewed by Bloomberg News, Blizzard employees said they were struggling to make ends meet while watching Activision Blizzard revenue grow year after year. One employee wrote that they had to skip meals to pay rent and that they used the company’s free coffee as an appetite suppressant. Another said they would only eat oatmeal and bail on team lunches because they couldn’t afford to buy food at the company cafeteria. A third said they and their partner stopped talking about having kids because they knew they wouldn’t be able to afford it.

“Our goal has always been to ensure we compensate our employees fairly and competitively,” Activision Blizzard spokeswoman Jessica Taylor said. “We are constantly reviewing compensation philosophies to better recognize the talent of our highest performers and keep us competitive in the industry, all with the aim of rewarding and investing more in top employees.”

This year, Blizzard top performers received a salary increase that was 20% more than in prior years, and more people got promotions, Taylor added.

laid off 8% of its workforcejasonschreier@protonmail.com

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Comment by Yetanotherone1Blizzard's an evil corp. Who could've thunkComment by octnoirSoooo....is anyone going to share the spreadsheet? If you are worried about names, you can black them out, and just have 'position' linked to benefits. At least so that others can come in with data analysis to see how much these employees 'should' be worth.

It's a common refrain that for the same skills you develop, in programming, art, you get paid far more in other industries, than in the games industry.Comment by TalthelanI don't imagine anyone is particularly surpised by this news, however it is still unfortunate to hear.Comment by TheDeralteLike some other ex-employee said before, they exploit people's passion for their work. Nothing surprising here folks.Comment by zakrilegeAnd not a single individual was surprisedComment by onetruesisterI became homeless while working as a Blizzard GM because they didn't pay enough for me to afford all my bills if any unexpected expense came up. This has been going on since before the Activision takeover.Comment by EyevouWe've known this forever that blizzard doesn't pay very well. Blizzard relies on exploiting passion - always have.Comment by GrimoraAnd not a single individual was surprisedComment by MalfiusI'd be interested to see if there is a correlation between Blizzard's declining performance and salary decrease over the past decade.

They have gone down hill significantly in recent years. The Blizzard of old was held up high by the excellence of their team. This now appears to be going down the toilet, too.Comment by Cromax95wow what @#$% company but execs can have 6 figureheads nice.. yeah exploiting passionComment by LeftkeywestI became homeless while working as a Blizzard GM because they didn't pay enough for me to afford all my bills if any unexpected expense came up. This has been going on since before the Activision takeover.Comment by tmilhomensSoooo....is anyone going to share the spreadsheet? If you are worried about names, you can black them out, and just have 'position' linked to benefits. At least so that others can come in with data analysis to see how much these employees 'should' be worth.

It's a common refrain that for the same skills you develop, in programming, art, you get paid far more in other industries, than in the games industry.Comment by AndmyaxeThis isn't a Blizzard problem, this is an entertainment industry problem.Comment by BrimrockI hope this brings about some sort of action to help those individuals make ends meet or at least get paid the value of their contribution.Comment by mysticalosI'd be interested to see if there is a correlation between Blizzard's declining performance and salary decrease over the past decade.

They have gone down hill significantly in recent years. The Blizzard of old was held up high by the excellence of their team. This now appears to be going down the toilet, too.Comment by MalfiusIt's a common refrain that for the same skills you develop, in programming, art, you get paid far more in other industries, than in the games industry.Comment by d3st88I'm an Senior IT guy in a leadership position.

Yearly salaries are a dumb, counterproductive commie thing. Hourly wage + productivity based salary is much better.

California is a cesspool with extremely high taxes and extremely high cost of doing business. So for every dollar an employee makes, much more is spent on taxes and cost of doing business compared to if said company was based in Texas, or Italy or whatever.

Currently there is a HUGE need for competent programmers. Most of these Blizzard employees are with Blizzard, because they want to be there - they forsake better paying job in order to be with Blizzard. I'm sure it looks very good on a CV as well, but if you work for Blizzard, don't whine. If the pay is low, get a new job.
I have friends working at Amazon over there and they are raking in a f.ton of money.

"Several former Blizzard employees said they only received significant pay increases after leaving for other companies"
This is economics 101, really. It's like saying you got wet when you dipped your toe in a lake. Studies are clear that if you are not changing company every 2-3 years, your salary will be 50% less in just a few decades.
For some reason companies don't like to give raises, and would rather risk losing talent than giving proper raises.

Firing your employees is a must in business. Some people shouldn't have been hired. Some people burn out or change into deadweight. Workload changes. The business changes. Funds decrease. Automation kicks in, etc. There are many good reason to fire people.
Companies who don't fire people are degrading at a light speed.
In virtually any team a double digit percent of the people are pretty much useless. Google up: pareto principle.
Then again, developers are making bank and are in extremely high need all around the world.Comment by ShardenSeeing the positions would be incredibly relevant. Blizz has a lot of positions that are essentially entry level, minimum wage, part time jobs. These positions are no different than starting level retail/fast food jobs that aren't intended to full time work designed to support a whole family. The idea is that you start in that sort of job, gain some work experience and move to a position (or another company) that is actually full time with appropriate pay.

If they aren't paying gms well (given that it's a job that requires or used to require zero work experience or pertinent skills), that wouldn't be unfair. If they are continuing that to people with more experience.. then, well, go work for riot I guess.Comment by blightmooreI thought most people knew this. I hope they know how appreciated their efforts are by the community as they deserve better than this.Comment by dragonscanUnionize and strike.

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