Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
Microsoft’s Fairwater campus in Racine County. What it’s like to work here and what it costs.
First edition. Some sections are still being sourced, and they say so. Know something we got wrong? Tell us.
The first building is done. The next one runs to 2028.
Nearly 10,000 construction workers worked on Microsoft’s first building here over two years. It went live in June.
The second, right next to it, is in foundations, steel and underground utilities, due in early 2028. Earthwork has started on a third area. In October the village’s plan commission approved Microsoft’s amended plan for the campus: seven buildings, 5.8 million square feet. The village board was set to vote on it in late October.
How many are on site at once: we’re still sourcing this. Microsoft gives a two‑year total, not a daily count. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Who’s building it
Microsoft owns it. Walsh Construction is the general contractor in Microsoft’s own project updates. Your employer is the company doing your trade’s work — not Microsoft. Get its name before you agree to anything.
Nineteen more of these are coming
Eight guides are written. Leave an address and the next one reaches you when it is done — nothing here is behind a wall, and nothing else gets sent.
Each new site guide when it’s done, and a note when a new tool goes up. Nothing else, ever.
Thirty miles from Milwaukee, sixty from Chicago
Mount Pleasant sits between two big metros, so there’s more housing in reach than at a rural site. No worker camp has been reported.
Rents, hotels and RV parks: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Four gates, three roads
The gates are on Highway KR, Braun Road and County Road H. The second building is at KR and H. The third area is at Durand Avenue and Hewitt Memorial Drive.
- Trucks run on set haul routes. Street sweepers run about 10 hours a day, and every exit has a tire wash.
- The village allows construction 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
Traffic counts and shift‑change backups: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Who holds Racine County
- Operating Engineers Local 139 is on the job. Microsoft named it when the first building opened.
The other trades: we’re still sourcing this. We confirm a hall’s jurisdiction on its own page or by phone before we print it. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Ask whether your package is union, merit shop, or both. It decides your rate, your overtime and whether a hall can help you.
How the one-year rule works
What counts is how long the job was expected to run. Not how long it actually runs.
- Expected to run a year or less, and it does. Per diem stays out of your wages.
- Expected to run longer than a year. Wages from your first day, however long it actually runs.
- Expected short, then extended past a year. Wages from the day a year or less stopped being realistic — not your 365th day, and not when the paperwork catches up.
It doesn’t reach back. Expect nine months, get extended at month eight, and the first eight months stand. That’s the IRS’s own example. The day you were told matters more than anything else here.
Keep three things: what you were told at the start (offer letter, requisition, the recruiter’s text), the day the extension came down and who it came from, and proof of a home you pay for while you’re away. Without that last one, none of the per diem was tax‑free to begin with.
What you’d actually keep here
The per diem rate here, the tax trap on this job, and what to ask before you accept.
Racine County gets the standard rate
Since 1 October 2026 it’s the federal standard: $113 lodging plus $68 meals, $181 a day. Milwaukee County is a special rate area at $144 for lodging — but that’s for work in Milwaukee County, not for a bed there.
That’s the most that can come to you tax‑free. Anything over it is wages and lands on your W‑2, whatever the recruiter calls it. Rates reset every 1 October.
Wisconsin income tax: we’re still sourcing this. Wisconsin taxes wages in brackets, and we want the state’s own table before we print a number. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
The second building started in November 2025 and is due in early 2028. That’s more than two years. A job quoted as “through building two” is past a year on paper before you start, and your per diem is taxed from your first paycheck.
Ask how long your part is expected to run, and get it in writing.
Before you accept
- How long is my part expected to run? Will they put it in writing?
- Is the per diem taxed from day one, or could it get reclassified later?
- Who is my employer, and is my package union?
- If this building ends, is the next one on the same site — and does that start a new clock or continue this one?
- Is the per diem paid seven days a week, or only days worked?
- How many hours are guaranteed, and is overtime daily or only past forty? (Union daily overtime doesn’t count for the federal overtime deduction.)
If they can’t answer the first two, you don’t have enough to decide.
Run the whole offer through the calculator.
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Sources
- Workers, the first building and the second: Microsoft, June 2026.
- Phases, gates, haul routes, the contractor and hours: Microsoft’s project updates, through July 2026.
- The bigger plan: WPR, October 2026.
- Population and distances: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020, via Wikipedia.
- Per diem rates: GSA, fiscal year 2027, via UW Travel. The one-year rule: IRS Publication 463 and Tax Topic 511.