The Department of Labor notified Microsoft last week that it was investigating the company’s plans to hire more black workers.
The department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs focused the inquiry on “whether Microsoft’s commitment to double the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors and senior leaders in our U.S. workforce by 2025 could constitute unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, which would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,” Microsoft’s corporate Vice President Dev Stahlkopf wrote.
In 2019, Microsoft revealed in its diversity report that across the entire company, 4.5% of its employees were black. Black employees comprise 2.7% of the company’s executive level.
In addition to doubling the company’s black workforce over the next five years, Microsoft added in its June announcement that it would evaluate senior executives for promotions and rewards “on their progress advancing diversity and inclusion,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The company was also going to invest “an additional $150 million over five years in our own internal diversity and inclusion programs,” according to Stahlkopf.
On Sept. 18, the OFCCP said in a news release that Microsoft had entered an agreement to “resolve alleged hiring discrimination affecting 1,229 applicants in four states” between 2014 and 2016. According to the resolution, “OFCCP found a statistically significant disparity” against Asian, Hispanic, and black applicants across four of the company’s U.S. offices.
In that agreement, Microsoft agreed to pay $3 million to those affected by the hiring practices.
A spokesperson told ABC that the OFCCP “appreciates Microsoft’s assurance on its website that it is not engaging in racial preferences or quotas in seeking to reach its affirmative action and outreach goals” and “looks forward to working with Microsoft” as it completes its inquiry.
“We are clear that the law prohibits us from discriminating on the basis of race,” Stahlkopf added. “We also have affirmative obligations as a company that serves the federal government to continue to increase the diversity of our workforce, and we take those obligations very seriously.”
