As You Sow is out with a pair of new scorecards for the S&P 500 (and they’ve filed a bunch of related shareholder proposals):
– Racial Justice – scoring companies based on their “racial justice statements,” corporate policies and practices across 22 data points
– Workplace Equity – assessing the quality of companies’ DEI disclosures
To gather data, they are looking at websites (including reporting/disclosure and career pages), social media accounts, and sustainability reports. The results of the findings are available as an overall composite list of the “top 10” & “bottom 10” – and also can be sorted by sector, HQ state, region, market cap, and number of employees. Here’s some of the key “Workplace Equity” findings:
– The largest companies by market cap, and the largest employers by headcount, are most likely to release meaningful workplace diversity and inclusion data.
– Almost half (46%) of the 100 largest companies by market cap in the S&P 500 release their consolidated EEO-1 forms, a good first step for sharing workplace composition. Within the 100 largest employers in the S&P 500, more than 1 in 4 do so. Of the companies that fall within both categories 30 of 53 (57%) release this form.
– More than 1 in 4 of the largest 100 companies release their recruitment rates of female employees. Almost 1 in 5 release their retention rates of female employees, and 1 in 10 release their recruitment rate of female employees.
– Disclosure rates of recruitment, retention, and promotion data by race and ethnicity is still catching up to gender data, likely a reflection of the #metoo movement gaining traction in 2017, while the protests in the aftermath of George Floyd murder began in late May, 2020, less than a year ago.
– Across sectors, a few companies have shown early leadership in publishing recruitment, retention, and promotion data by race and ethnicity. These companies include: Allstate, Apple, BlackRock, Norfolk Southern Corp and Oracle Corp which release their recruitment rates; Alphabet, Edison International, Intel, PVH Corp and Twitter, which release retention rates; and Consolidated Edison, Goldman Sachs, Progressive, Twitter and Walmart which release promotion rates.
– 16% of the S&P500 release at least one recruitment statistic related to race or ethnicity. Within the 100 largest companies by market cap, 23% do so. Within the 100 largest employers, 23% do so.
– 15% of the S&P 500 have released a quantifiable goal related to their workplace diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Within the 100 largest companies by market cap, 22% do so. Within the 100 largest employers, 22% do so. Of the companies that fall within both categories 13 of 53 (25%) release this form.
As You Sow is also continuing to release its scorecards on Waste & Opportunity – measuring 50 large companies in the beverage, quick-service restaurant, consumer packaged goods and retail sectors – and Pesticides in the Pantry – scoring 14 food manufacturers on transparency & risk in food supply chains – as well as its mainstay, the “100 Most Overpaid CEOs.”
-Liz Dunshee, TheCorporateCounsel.net March 12, 2021
