I believe there was a large compensation change during the time of Steve Balmer when the stock was flat. The change switched the mix to more cash, less stock. Prior to that shift, levels started much lower. The levels were reset to 59+ after this change to reduce confusion over the previous compensation plans. That's my understanding. Yes, levels run 59 to 70 with anything above 70 being something like the CEO or a very early founder in a distinguished role.

Microsoft levels used to be 1-15 or something like that. In 2000, as part of "Comp 2000" update to levels and compensation, they changed the levels for a bunch of reasons (one of which was to make smaller, more frequent promos, which is why the bands now each span multiple levels). Each of existing levels was expanded to two or three separate levels. For example, a former level 10 position became either a level 58 or level 59 position. Employees were then placed in one of the newly created job levels. Managers were afforded some amount of discretion in this placement process.

To prevent confusion ("old 5 or new 5?"), they picked numbers that were clearly different from the old 1,2,3... system.

Also, note that the comp change to reduce stock and increase base happened sometime in 2003, not as part of the comp 2000 changes. That's also when the switch from stock options to awards happened.

Feels like a kind of Spinal Tap seniority index: “The volume of this amplifier starts at 59!”

For software, levels for non software go below 59 iirc.

A long time ago they used to start hiring for software engineers at least at 57.

Ahh, I was never sure if non-software are on that stack. That makes sense.

No, it starts even lower than that. The data center employees are usually in the 40s.

Retail employees are also on that list somewhere

I heard that it was done that way during a leveling revamp to avoid confusion with the previous scheme.

No, levels start at 56 possibly much lower.