Union disses Microsoft salaries

WashTech, an organized labor group that is pushing Microsoft workers to unionize, is speaking out again, this time over the software maker's pay practices.

According to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report, WashTech got a hold of some documents that it claims represent Microsoft's pay plans. The paper reports that the documents appear to show no pay increase for several ranks at the bottom of Microsoft's pay scale.

"In terms of what they're paying out in annual increases to employees, they're trying to hold the line well below 3 percent a year," WashTech president Marcus Courtney told the paper. Microsoft, for its part, told the paper that its pay is "highly competitive in the industry."