US pay gap resolutions hit mainstream
By Paul Hodgson, February 23, 2023
Shareholder resolutions requesting US firms disclose the pay gap between white male employees and women and ethnic minorities is on the up.
Since 2016, investment management firm Arjuna Capital has persuaded 28 Fortune 500 companies to disclose racial and gender pay gap data.
In the US, black workers’ median earnings represent 64% of white workers’ earnings and women’s earnings represent 83% of men’s earnings.
Walt Disney published statistically adjusted racial and gender pay gap data last September after a historic majority vote by investors at the company’s AGM.
As with many governance issues, the US is playing catch up with Europe and the UK over pay gap disparity disclosures. But unlike in Europe, where regulations plays a bigger role, it is left to activist shareholders to make things happen.
For starters, there is no such thing in the US as the UK’s gender pay gap service, where companies with more than 250 employees must report statistics comparing men and women’s average pay across the organisation.
“US investors should have access to that information in their own country,” says Natasha Lamb, managing partner of investment management firm Arjuna Capital, the lead shareholder proponent in the campaign to disclose pay disparities.
In addition to Arjuna Capital ($400m AUM) and shareholder advocacy firm Proxy Impact, New York City pension funds, Pax World Funds, Zevin Asset Management and even, this year, gadfly investor James McRitchie have all filed gender/race pay gap resolutions.
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