On March 14, 2022, Arjuna Capital, an investment firm focused on sustainability and impact investing, released their Fifth Annual Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard, which ranked 57 companies based on gender and racial pay equity disclosure, performance, and commitments. This scorecard seeks to educate companies, investors, and the public on the racial and gender pay equity landscape and target areas where companies can improve. The 57 companies, all within the finance, technology/communications, consumer, and healthcare sectors, have been previously engaged by investors through the shareholder proposal process regarding their practices, policies, and goals to reduce any racial and/or gender pay gaps.

Seven of the 57 companies received an “A” including Adobe, American Express, Bank of NY Mellon, Citigroup, Mastercard, Pfizer and Starbucks. These companies were graded across five categories: racial pay gap, gender pay gap, UK pay gap, coverage, and commitment. An “A” result reflects not only a narrowing racial and gender pay gap, but also robust disclosure and commitment to improving the pay gap over time.

Since the first scorecard published five years ago, an “A” score has been awarded approximately 10% of the time, on average. An “F” score, however, has been awarded approximately 40% of the time, signaling that there is still room for improvement in pay equity analysis and reporting.