A major tech outage affecting Microsoft systems could screw up payroll for people around the world

A huge tech outage caused by a Crowdstrike update is disrupting Microsoft systems around the world, affecting airlines, hospitals, and retailers. As businesses struggle to recover, some experts say that regularly scheduled paychecks for workers could also be thrown into disarray.

Melanie Pizzey, the founder and CEO of Global Payroll Association, says her company has already been contacted by a number of clients who can’t access their payroll software due to the outage.

“Depending on the length of this outage, it could have very serious implications for businesses across the nation, particularly those who process payroll on a weekly basis,” she says. “Furthermore, we could see a backlog with regard to processing payrolls for the coming month end which may delay employees from receiving their monthly wage.”

Another small business compensation company, Wagepoint, said that employee deposits have been delayed due to the Microsoft-Crowdstrike error.

“It’s in Microsoft’s and Crowdstrike’s hands,” the company wrote on X. “We’re keeping a close eye on the situation and hoping it gets resolved soon.”

Crowdstrike’s CEO George Kurtz announced Friday morning that the outage was not a cyberattack, and instead a “single content update from Windows hosts.”

“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” he said. “We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”

Companies across the U.S., U.K., South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, and India running Windows systems have been thrown into disarray. Nearly 1,400 flights have been canceled globally, and there have been 911 outages in pockets of the U.S.

In a post on Friday, Microsoft wrote: “We have been made aware of an issue impacting Virtual Machines running Windows Client and Windows Server, running the CrowdStrike Falcon agent, which may encounter a bug check (BSOD) and get stuck in a restarting state.”

It’s still unclear how widespread payroll interrupt may be, especially considering that many employees are paid on Fridays. One social media user wrote on X that he didn’t get paid this morning due to a “failed [Microsoft] MS software update.” Still, he tried to be lighthearted about the situation.

“I should have prepared better. $11.97 isn’t much when you’re facing the end of the world.”