Microsoft announced several significant changes on Wednesday. First, they will no longer include non-competition clauses in their U.S. employment agreements and will remove these clauses from existing agreements. This applies to all employees except senior leaders. Microsoft will no longer include non-disclosure clauses in settlement and separation agreements with U.S. workers that would prevent them from disclosing allegations of misconduct. The company will publicly disclose salary ranges in job posts in the U.S. starting in January 2023. All three are required by law in Washington State, where Microsoft is based. Finally, Microsoft says it will commission and publish findings from a third-party civil rights audit to be completed in its upcoming fiscal year, scrutinizing workforce policies and practices that impact diversity and inclusion.
Why do we care?
While applauding the move, a headline that reads “Microsoft complies with the law” is both accurate and wholely uninteresting. They’re smart to position themselves as putting workers first and getting ahead of the narrative. I’ll acknowledge that and commend them. But I also wanted to recognize that they didn’t have a choice here.
That said, there’s space for other companies to get ahead of it, too – even before it’s the law.