Press Release: Arjuna Capital: AHEAD OF EQUAL PAY DAY AND RELEASE OF 6th ANNUAL RACIAL AND GENDER PAY SCORECARD, INVESTORS REPORT MORE COMPANIES COMMITTING TO PAY GAP TRANSPARENCY

Investors filed 16 median pay gap proposals for the 2023 proxy season: BlackRock, Visa, Thermo Fisher, and Amalgamated Bank are first to commit to disclosure this season joining now over 40 companies.

Boston, Massachusetts, March 10, 2023- March 14th is Equal Pay Day this year—a sobering day that marks how far into 2023 women need to work to make what men earned in 2022 alone.  On the eve of Equal Pay Day, Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact will release their 6th annual Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard, a rubric of how nearly 70 companies engaged by investors stack up on pay gap disclosure and performance. For the 2023 proxy season alone, investors filed 16 shareholder proposals, requesting companies disclose their adjusted and unadjusted median racial and gender pay gaps. Four new companies—BlackRock, Visa, Thermo Fisher, and Amalgamated Bank—have now committed to disclose this data, resulting in the withdrawal of the proposals ahead of the companies’ annual meetings. Several other companies including Apple, Boeing and Kellogg, refused to provide transparency and the proposals are going to a vote at the companies’ annual meetings this spring.

“Momentum is growing for broad-based standardized pay gap reporting, with over 40 companies now committing to meaningful median pay disclosure,” said Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna Capital, which filed proposals at Visa, Thermo Fisher, Amalgamated Bank and Apple. “Companies are providing investors with an honest accounting of pay gaps, opening the door for real progress.”

Shareholder advocate, James McRitchie, who filed proposals at BlackRock, Boeing and Kellogg, said, "We are delighted to have worked out an agreement with BlackRock. And we’re optimistic Blackrock will see the value internally as well as externally by supporting median pay gap proposals at other companies."

Visa, BlackRock, Amalgamated, and Thermo Fisher have all committed to best practice pay equity reporting including adjusted and unadjusted median racial and gender pay gap disclosures, working towards 100% employee coverage and including base, bonus, and equity compensation. Visa began improving its disclosure by publishing quantitative statistically adjusted pay gaps in its FY22 ESG Disclosure. The company will expand its reporting to include median pay gaps for 100% of its operations in its 2023 ESG Disclosure. BlackRock has committed to disclosing pay gap data within a year and will disclose the percentage of employees covered by the pay gap disclosure. Amalgamated Bank will disclose comprehensive pay gaps on 100% of its employee population before the end of 2023. Thermo Fisher will disclose unadjusted and adjusted racial and gender pay gaps for a portion of its US population in its 2023 ESG report. The company will expand its disclosure to include its entire US population in its 2024 ESG report and will work towards expanding its gender pay gap disclosures globally.  

This year, Equal Pay Day falls one day earlier than last year, illustrating little progress on closing racial and gender pay gaps in the United States. Last week, Pew Research Center released a harrowing study showing the gender pay gap has only decreased two percent in the last twenty years, with women today earning 83% of men’s earnings. Minorities continue to face larger wage gaps, with Black women earning 64% and Latina women earning 54% that of white, non-Hispanic males.

Over nine years, Arjuna Capital, Proxy Impact, and other investors have filed over 158 shareholder proposals requesting companies comprehensively disclose racial and gender pay gaps. These disclosures are crucial as they encourage action to decrease pay gaps, improve diverse representation, increase employee retention, and improve financial performance. Since 2016, Arjuna has compelled racial and gender pay equity disclosures at 34 Fortune 500 companies.  Just last year, shareholder proposals requesting comprehensive pay gap disclosures received majority votes at Disney and Lowe’s.

Both unadjusted median and statistically adjusted pay gap data are necessary for a comprehensive disclosure. Median pay gaps assess how jobs and compensation are distributed by race and gender company wide. Meanwhile, statistically adjusted gaps only assess pay gaps for employees performing similar roles.  

Arjuna Capital is a sustainable investment firm that works with accredited investors 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 racial and gender pay equity in the tech, banking, and consumer sectors. www.Arjuna-Capital.com

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