All stories by Jennifer Tonti

During a time of political division, the public is aligned that workers and wages should continue to be companies’ top priority. Additionally, addressing consumer issues is increasingly important to all Americans.

Each year, we ask the American public to identify and prioritize what issues matter most when it comes to just business behavior. This year, we began by asking participants a simple question: What do you think the chief responsibility of America’s largest companies is?

Our latest survey research – in collaboration with Omidyar Network and The Ford Foundation – asks Americans if and how companies should align with the core principles of stakeholder capitalism.

Despite rhetoric that the country is incredibly polarized, there is broad consensus across all demographic and political cohorts that workers should be corporate America’s top priority.

Americans are hesitant to agree that the nation’s largest companies are truly moving away from the shareholder-centric model.

In 2022, nine in ten respondents – with strong majorities across demographic groups – say it’s important for companies to promote racial equity in the workplace.

We surveyed Americans to learn what they think about CEO pay today, and what companies should do to narrow the CEO-to-Worker pay gap.

Americans want to see large companies publicly disclose human capital and environmental impact metrics and endorse federal action to require standardized disclosure.

Throughout 2021, we turned to Americans to learn what they think companies should do to address the most pressing challenges of our time and move toward a recovery that serves all their stakeholders. Here’s what they said.

Highlighting the key Issues that rose to prominence in our 2021 survey of the American public, to provide corporate leaders with clear direction for where they should focus their efforts to make their companies more just and stave off emerging challenges from The Great Resignation.

In this year’s Survey of Americans’ Views on Business, we’ve turned to the public once again to ask them how they think corporate America is doing today – and provide a lookback on our findings over the years to see how views have shifted.

A new survey from JUST Capital & The Harris Poll of active duty military and veterans, their family members, and the wider public. 87% of respondents say companies have a role to play in actively recruiting veterans to their workforces.

74% of respondents say companies can help address global climate change by committing to environmental goals like reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Since the Business Roundtable redefined the Purpose of a Corporation two years ago, how do Americans think companies are measuring up to this new stakeholder-focused purpose?

With the rising risk of the Delta variant, Americans are increasingly in favor of employer mandates for the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a tight labor market, particularly for industries with more lower-wage workers, Americans say companies should respond by raising wages and offering benefits – and making these changes permanent.

As companies call workers back to offices, here’s how Americans view employer vaccine policies and other workplace safety measures.

Our most recent survey reached 2,000 Americans in an effort to understand whether they believe CEOs have a role to play in influencing lawmakers across a variety of issues, from corporate tax policy to racial equality to voting rights.

What concrete actions should corporate leaders prioritize to ensure a movement toward greater racial equity in the workplace and beyond?

Explore the perspectives of both employers and employees on how COVID-19 is continuing to shape the workplace one year into the pandemic.

A snapshot of the public’s views during this unprecedented year, as well as a blueprint for corporate action in the year to come.

Despite some expected partisan splits, Republicans and Democrats alike look to CEOs for leadership and want corporate political spending reined in.

As political polling comes under fire after another year of unexpected election results, it’s worth noting how JUST Capital’s surveys differ.

JUST Capital and The Harris Poll asked Americans how they view corporations’ role in our democracy.

We’re looking at the latest insights from survey research each week, to see how Americans are feeling over the course of this unprecedented time.