Microsoft will only partner with companies that offer employees 12 weeks of paid family leave

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday reportedly announced that it will only partner with contractors and suppliers that offer their employees 12 weeks of paid family leave. 

“We want to focus our resources on doing business with companies that share our values,” Dev Stahlkopf, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and general counsel, told The Washington Post.

{mosads}The policy means that service providers partnering with the tech giant will be required to offer mothers and fathers 12 weeks of leave at two-thirds of their wages or up to $1,000 weekly, according to The Post.

The Post noted that the policy was announced right as Washington state, where Microsoft is headquartered, is set to become the fifth state to reward workers with paid family leave.

The new law will give workers in that state the opportunity to collect up to $1,000 per week while on paid family leave. 

Over 1,000 companies partner with Microsoft and half of those are outside of Washington state. The Post reports that the policy they’ve created for those partnering companies is different from the one they have with their own employees. 

Company employees get 12 weeks of paid family leave at full pay, The Post reported. Meanwhile, birth mothers get eight extra paid weeks for recovery at the company.

Many lawmakers have taken up causes related to paid family leave in recent years. Earlier this month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced legislation to create a paid parental leave benefit. 

“For the Republican Party [paid leave is] a new issue. It’s an issue that’s traditionally associated with the Democratic Party and the left,” Rubio said at a press conference while announcing the legislation. “But I don’t think issues that are good for our children and good for families should be ideological or partisan.”

According to the Post, this is not the first time Microsoft has required its partners share similar values.

Three years ago, the company said it would only partner with companies that offered at least 15 days of paid sick or vacation time.