“Corporate commitments to diversity are credible only if the company releases full EEO statistics,” according to Calvert Research and Management, the responsibility investment subsidiary of Eaton Vance. Calvert joined the ranks of NYC Comptroller, Trillium and others last year in calling for companies to publish their EEO-1 reports with disaggregated race and gender information. In a
recent blog post, the investor announced that of the 100 largest companies on its campaign list, 15 already disclose their EEO-1 report and 27 more have agreed to release it. Noting that the overall response rate was about 75%, Calvert warned it has already filed 16 resolutions with companies that either failed to respond or openly declined to disclose, and would consider filing additional resolutions during the year.
Calvert cites a
longer white paper detailing its rationale for requesting EEO-1 disclosure, including the following:
- All companies with a US workforce over 100 employees are required to produce an EEO-1 report
- Shareholder proposals asking for diversity reporting have received significant (35%-79%) investor support over the past two years
- Transparency of diversity data incentivizes management to prioritize diversity initiatives
- In the absence of company-disclosed information, stakeholders will turn to external sources (such as Glassdoor) outside the companies’ control
Notably, Calvert makes direct reference to the EEOC’s 2019 mandate to report on pay data as well as diversity data (Component 2). If this mandate returns under the Biden administration, which is likely to be the case, we can expect Calvert and other similar investors to make an immediate push for companies to disclose that data as well.
Meanwhile, all 12 Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee sent a
joint letter to the SEC asking it to reject Nasdaq’s
recent proposal to require listed companies to include diverse board directors. The letter said that Nasdaq was exceeding its role in acting as “arbitrator of social policy” and that board members should be chosen on “merit and ability.” The Senate Banking Chair and 15 Senate Democrats sent a letter stating the complete opposite last month, welcoming the Nasdaq proposal to “to ensure that the voices of women and communities of color are represented and heard in boardrooms.” The proposal will not be voted on by the SEC until Gary Gensler is confirmed as Chair.
