Press Release: A MAJORITY OF LOWE’S INVESTORS APPROVE RACIAL & GENDER PAY EQUITY PROPOSAL

Today’s vote represents the first majority vote on a shareholder proposal from Lowe’s investors in over a decade.  This follows a majority vote on the issue at Disney this spring.   

Boston, Massachusetts, May 27, 2022 – A majority of Lowe’s shareholders approved a shareholder proposal today brought forth by investment management firm Arjuna Capital, asking the company to transparently report on racial and gender pay gaps. The vote highlights the material importance of human capital management to institutional investors: the “S” in ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investing.   

While an increasing number of companies, including retail peers Home Depot and Target, have committed to reporting on pay equity this year, Lowe’s board opposed Arjuna’s racial and gender pay equity proposal. Through today’s vote, shareholders signaled the importance of reporting pay gaps to hold companies accountable to their stated diversity and inclusion goals. During the annual meeting, Lowe’s stated that the board would take the majority vote into consideration and determine the appropriate follow-up action. 

“Investors expect a new standard of accountability on racial and gender pay equity and today Lowe’s board heard that message loud and clear.” said Natasha Lamb, Managing Partner at Arjuna Capital. “Managing pay equity is not only supportive of Lowe’s diversity and inclusion goals, it will also allow the company to attract and retain diverse talent, positioning the company for stronger performance.”

Comprehensive pay gap reporting is an increasingly common corporate disclosure, as pay inequity persists across race and gender. In the U.S., Black worker’s median earnings represent 64 percent of white worker’s earnings and women’s earnings represent 83 percent of men’s earnings. Shrinking these gaps is in service to greater diversity, talent retention, and performance. 

Best-practice pay equity reporting consists of two important elements: (1) unadjusted median pay gaps, assessing how jobs are distributed by race and gender and which groups hold the high-paying jobs, and (2) statistically-adjusted gaps, assessing pay between minorities and non-minorities, men and women, performing similar roles. While statistically-adjusted gaps provide a piece of the story, median pay gaps are a tougher and more revealing standard. Median pay gaps also provide distinct value from representation data alone as they show, quite literally, how the company assigns value to its employees through the roles they inhabit and the pay they receive. 

Arjuna Capital was the lead filer of six shareholder proposals (Apple, Chipotle, Home Depot, Amazon, Lowe’s, and Disney) in the 2022 proxy season requesting median racial and gender pay disclosures, and was a co-filer of a proposal at Target, alongside lead-filer Proxy Impact. Chipotle, Home Depot, and Target have now all agreed to publish the data requested in exchange for a withdrawal of the proposal.  In March 2022, Arjuna Capital’s proposal at Disney received a nearly 60% majority vote, the largest shareholder vote in the Company’s history. In November 2021, Arjuna Capital’s and Proxy Impact’s pay gap proposal at Microsoft received a 40% vote of support from investors and the company committed to disclosure that day.  

Since 2016, Arjuna has compelled racial and gender pay equity disclosures at 27 companies, including leading U.S. tech, finance, and retail firms like Starbucks, Microsoft, Google, and Citigroup.

Arjuna Capital is a sustainable and impact investment firm that works with high-net-worth individuals, families, and institutions to invest their assets with a lens toward Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) risk and opportunity. Arjuna Capital has been recognized for using shareholder resolutions to promote gender and racial pay equity in the tech, banking, and retail sectors. www.Arjuna-Capital.com.

CONTACT:  Julia Frost, (978) 866-0208, julia@arjuna-capital.com.