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An employee waits to greet customers at a Microsoft store in Bellevue, Washington, on Thursday, January 26, 2017.
David Ryder/Bloomberg © 2017 BLOOMBERG FINANCE LPS
alary ranges should be like the nutritional labels on food packaging, one human resources executive wrote in response to my story last week, which reported that Microsoft will be among the first major corporations to include pay information in all U.S. job postings.
“Why have we not always done this?” wrote Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn’s first chief human resources officer and a future-of-work expert who wrote the book Workquake, on LinkedIn. “It’s kinda sad that we see this as a big deal.”
Yet it is.
In a blog post, the tech giant said Wednesday that it would disclose salary ranges in all internal and external U.S. job postings no later than January 2023. That date is when Washington State, where Microsoft’s headquarters are located, will start requiring employers with at least 15 employees to disclose salary ranges for each position. The law covers Washington State; Microsoft’s initiative will apply “across the U.S.,” it said.
Microsoft is considered to be a bellwether among large companies for employment practices, and is likely to be emulated by other big employers. “It’s going to force others off the sidelines,” Christine Hendrickson, a former partner at Seyfarth Shaw who is now the vice president of strategic initiatives at Syndio, told me last week. “When companies start acting, others are soon to follow.”
Why haven’t companies shared this information already? They haven’t had to, for one. Employers considered pay ranges closely guarded secrets, viewing them as competitive information. Most still do—and they certainly don’t relish the thought of sharing the data. In New York City, which also passed a law requiring pay ranges in job ads, employers have already pushed to postpone the requirement there.
But a new generation’s expectations about transparency—and a tight labor market that’s empowered workers to expect more from potential employers—have prompted more disclosures of pay ranges and data. Meanwhile, a growing number of laws in state and local jurisdictions that require pay range disclosure—there are now six—mean more employers will likely embrace the practice rather than fight it.
Here’s the thing: Big companies don’t want to have different H.R. policies for different states. It complicates things—and in this case would mean unequal access to information for employees who live in states where laws require it and those who don’t. Few things can prompt more frustration among employees than knowing what some people stand to make—while the information is kept from others.
My bet? You’ll see other big companies follow suit soon. It may not be right away—I’d guess Microsoft is a bit further ahead in doing the work of auditing its pay scales and making sure people are paid equally in order to make a bet like this. As others feel comfortable revealing this data won’t cause an uproar among current workers, they’ll do it, too. Employees, after all, are going to expect it.
FEATURED STORY
Gen-Z Recruiting Startup RippleMatch Raises $45 Million To Boost Job-Matching Technology
New York-based college recruiting startup RippleMatch raised $45 million in Series B funding, the company announced Wednesday. The investment values the company at $205 million as it bulks up to take on traditional job search giants like LinkedIn and Indeed. Read more here.
WORK SMARTER
Inflation and a grim economic outlook may have you looking for a new job. Here’s how to fight back against your nerves when interviewing.
Laid off recently? Here’s what to do next.
We all face burnout and overwork at some point in our careers. Here are the signs.
The job market is hot. Here’s why you should start that job hunt today—and how.
So now you’ve got the job offer. How to negotiate and advocate for yourself.
ON OUR AGENDA
First fake accounts, now fake job interviews? Federal civil rights prosecutors are investigating Wells Fargo’s hiring practices, the New York Times reported Thursday, weeks after the newspaper revealed some bank managers had conducted fake interviews with Black and female job applicants. Citing unnamed sources, the Times said the probe is in “early stages,” looking into whether bank staffers interviewed diverse candidates for jobs that were already planned to be offered to other applicants in order to meet the requirements of an internal diversity policy.
Rescinded job offers: Public backlash on social media after cryptocurrency platform Coinbase rescinded job offers prompted employees at the company to start a petition calling for the removal of top executives. Forbes contributor Jack Kelly writes about CEO Brian Armstrong’s response on Twitter, where he called it “really dumb on multiple levels,” as well as why rescinded job offers can prompt people to seek out more emotionally intelligent managers.
Job protections for D.C. marijuana users: On June 7, the city council of Washington, D.C., unanimously passed a bill that provides broad protections for marijuana users, writes Forbes contributor Alonzo Martinez. The bill, titled the Cannabis Employment Protections Amendment Act of 2022, would bar employers from adversely affecting the employment of a marijuana user, Martinez writes, if signed into law.
Musk hiring—or not? Long after Tesla founder Elon Musk prompted a wave of chatter about working from home and whether his “super bad feeling” about the economy could prompt job cuts (and affect Tesla’s stock), we’re still talking about it. On Thursday, Reuters reported the company was holding an online hiring event in China, citing an online post by the company, after Musk appeared to backtrack on his threat to cut 10% of the company’s workforce and freeze hiring by saying the carmaker will add more factory jobs over the next 12 months.
The future of job training is in virtual reality: Forbes contributor Nicholas Wyman writes about a jobs program in Alabama to help special-needs students develop workforce skills to find a career. The Alabama RISE (Re-emerging Ideas for Successful Employment) program allows these students to participate in VR simulations to develop on-the-job experience before ever being hired, a reminder of the potential for the technology to improve job training for many.
BOOK CLUB
For companies, catering to older populations is often tricky or overlooked—an untapped market, if you will. Susan Wilner Golden, director of dciX initiatives at the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute, is reframing “what an old person is” in her new book, Stage (Not Age): How to Understand and Serve People Over 60—the Fastest Growing, Most Dynamic Market in the World. The author provides a guide for companies to understand how retirement age can actually mean many different markets and stages.