The Advisors' Blog

– Liz Dunshee

Last year, I blogged about Citigroup being the first US company to disclose its “unadjusted pay gap” – which compares the median earnings of women & minorities in the US to the median pay of men & non-minorities and can be an indicator of these groups’ opportunities for advancement. Citi’s voluntary disclosure came in response to a shareholder proposal from Arjuna Capital.

Of course, global companies may already have to disclose similar info in other countries – e.g. the UK, Australia, Germany and Iceland – and I’ve blogged that there’s been a lot of back & forth on an EEOC reporting requirement here in the US.

Citi’s move didn’t exactly open the floodgates to information sharing. But Arjuna and other shareholders have persisted – and last week Starbucks become the second US company to add website disclosure of its gender & minority pay gap in exchange for Arjuna’s withdrawal of a proposal. It’s very simple & concise.

The gaps in the US were zero dollars! Understandably, Starbucks is getting a lot of positive press for that.

Meanwhile, Microsoft sent a similar Arjuna proposal to a vote last week – where it garnered almost 30% approval. This press release says that Arjuna intends to file median pay gap proposals at more than a dozen companies during the upcoming proxy season – it’ll be “naming names” next month. See this blog I ran last spring for a recap of Arjuna’s efforts to-date and a link to their “Scorecard” that contains example language from resolutions.

For resources about preparing for these types of proposals, the expanding role of the compensation committee, stakeholder expectations and intersecting legal requirements, visit our “Gender Pay Equity” Practice Area or use the search feature for this blog…