Microsoft said it will increase pay transparency and ban most noncompete agreements in a series of moves aimed at improving workplace culture.
The tech giant will disclose salary ranges on internal and external job postings in the U.S. by January 2023 and get rid of noncompetition clauses from U.S. employee agreements and not enforce existing ones, except among partners and executives. The company said it will also remove confidentiality clauses from U.S. settlement and separation agreements and complete a third-party civil rights audit of its workforce practices and policies in fiscal 2023.
"We believe these workforce initiatives are positive changes for our employees and reflect our fundamental principle that people are the heart and soul of our company and our No. 1 priority," Microsoft human resources executives Amy Pannoni and Amy Coleman wrote in a June 8 company blog post.
A handful of states, including Microsoft's home base of Washington, have recently passed legislation requiring salary transparency in job ads and prohibiting noncompetes.
The tech giant says these decisions are in line with other recent actions like shifting toward hybrid work and enhancing mental health resources for workers. In May, the company said it would boost merit-based salary increases and stock compensation for employees.