Of 50 leading U.S. companies, 25 get an F grade for their efforts to disclose and act on gender and racial pay gaps, while three companies – Starbucks, Mastercard and Citigroup – received an A grade.
The information is contained in the Gender Pay Scorecard by investment manager Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact.
Failing grades were awarded to Goldman Sachs, Oracle, McDonalds and Walmart. Ten companies earned a B – Nike, Bank of New York Mellon, Progressive Insurance, Pfizer, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Apple, Intel, American Express and Bank of America.
The world’s largest corporations have come under pressure to close their gender and racial pay gaps in response to investor pressure, the #MeToo movement, and increasing public policy and regulation. In the United States, women working full time earn 82% of that of their male peers, a $10,122 per year gap. This disparity can add up to nearly $500,000 over the course of a career. The weekly median earnings for African American and Latina women are 62% and 54% of that of their male peers, respectively.
Since 2016, Arjuna Capital has negotiated gender and racial pay gap disclosures from 22 companies, including leading U.S. tech, finance and consumer firms. In the 2020 proxy season, Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact are asking companies to a meet a more stringent standard of disclosing unadjusted “median gender/racial pay gap” data like that mandated in the UK.
“As today’s report makes clear, half of U.S. companies still have a long way to go, and there is room for substantial improvement across the board,” says Arjuna Capital MP Natasha Lamb. “Pay equity is going to be a major issue in the 2020 shareholder season.”
