A racial and gender scorecard compiled by Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact has assigned 13 companies an “A” rating for their pay equity disclosures.
In the sixth annual pay scorecard, released on March 13, 50% more companies achieved an “A” grade including large brand names such as Target, Starbucks, Mastercard, Microsoft, and Pfizer.
In compiling the report, the 68 companies in the ranking were all engaged by investors through shareholder proposals and asked to improve their pay equity disclosures.
With a perfect score of “A+,” Target was commended for its efforts. “Racial and gender pay gaps are structural and persistent, but the scorecard holds up those companies that are doing the real and honest work to create pay equity,” said Natasha Lamb, managing partner of investment management firm Arjuna Capital.
15 companies were found to have improved their scores year-over-year. These included Lowe’s and Best Buy which saw the largest score increase from an “F” to a “B” due to their efforts to disclose comprehensive adjusted and unadjusted median racial and gender pay gaps.
However, tech giants Intel and Google each saw their scores fall to “D” and “F”, respectively. This decline was attributed in the report to their failure to disclose quantitative pay gaps or methodology within the last two years, despite commitments to investors.
25 companies earned a failing grade of “F” due to their lack of transparency. These included Google, Goldman Sachs, Marriott, Charles Schwab, and Walmart.
Overall, consumer companies were found to be leading the way on pay gap disclosures, with the sector comprising 38% of companies awarded an “A” score.