Just Capital announces today the appointment of former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as chairman of its board of directors.
Schulman replaces Just Capital Co-Founder Paul Tudor Jones II, who will remain on the board and continue to partner with Just Capital’s advisors and directors to realize its goal of becoming the most trusted and objective authority on ranking, recognizing, and incentivizing corporate stakeholder leadership.
“Paul Tudor Jones II’s vision when he co-founded JUST Capital ten years ago is an inspiration to us all,” said Dan Schulman. “Under his leadership, the organization has changed the conversation about how business in America is done. The role of JUST Capital is becoming ever more important in today’s world. I look forward to partnering with Paul and the rest of the board to help guide the kind of corporate leadership that the world so urgently needs.”
Schulman was the CEO of PayPal for more than nine years and previously held leadership roles at American Express, Sprint Nextel Corporation, Priceline Group, and AT&T. He is a board member of Verizon, Cisco, Lazard, and the Cleveland Clinic. He is vice chair of the Valor Capital Group, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Steering Committee to promote global financial inclusion.
“Dan Schulman’s track record working at some of the largest U.S. companies makes him the perfect person to carry Just Capital forward as chairman,” said Paul Tudor Jones II. “I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved and look forward to working alongside Dan and the entire JUST Capital team to drive change at scale and better the lives of all Americans in doing so.”
Over the past 10 years, Just Capital has amplified the voices of more than 180,000 Americans and incentivized hundreds of the largest U.S. companies to take concrete actions that benefit millions of workers, families, and communities. With partners like CNBC and Forbes, the organization has built the Just Capital Rankings into a sought-after designation that improves brand value and has launched investable indices that demonstrate the clear case for stakeholder-driven business. As of August 30, 2024, Just Capital’s flagship indexes, the JUST 100 Index (JUONETR) and Just U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index (JULCD), have outperformed their benchmarks by 51% and 12.9%, respectively, since inception.
“As stakeholder metrics become more relevant in C-suites and boardrooms, Just Capital is delighted to work hand-in-hand with Dan Schulman to hone our strategy to directly support leaders in managing risk, measuring and improving performance, and creating impact at scale,” said CEO Martin Whittaker. “When many are questioning the merits of capitalism and faith in the American Dream is being tested, our vision is clear. We know that just business is better business.”
Amidst the current caregiving and mental health crises, employees are increasingly seeking paid leave benefits to safeguard their well-being, and that of their families. In response, some companies are strategically crafting policies that cater to diverse employee needs, fostering equity and inclusion within their organizations, and integrating more resiliency into their workforces.
Right now, the vast majority of companies fall short of meeting workers’ expectations on paid leave benefits. JUST Capital’s research suggests only 9% of companies offer 12 or more weeks of parental leave for both caregivers, while their 2022 polling found that 64% of Americans believe it is necessary for companies to provide 12 weeks of paid leave for all parents. Worse, just 23% of private industry workers had access to any paid family leave through their employer in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While 77% of workers in private industry are able to access paid sick leave as of February 2023, low-wage workers are significantly less likely to have paid sick leave compared to high-wage workers (38% vs. 96%, respectively).
JUST Capital tracks companies’ practices around paid family leave, paid sick leave, and other core caregiving policies, and we have observed the emergence of cutting-edge benefits that support employees across various life stages as businesses discover that supporting their employees’ well-being is not only socially responsible, but a smart investment. Paid leave policies improve worker retention and productivity, while minimally increasing operating costs (sometimes producing cost savings). In studies of California’s paid leave program, about 90% of businesses reported either a positive or neutral effect on productivity and almost all businesses (99%) identified positive or neutral effects on employee morale.
Paid leave initiatives are also pivotal in advancing equity within the workforce. Women – particularly mothers – often bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities, leading to detrimental career choices and perpetuating the gender earnings gap, sometimes known as the “motherhood penalty.” In an analysis of states with paid leave policies, the rate of women leaving their jobs after welcoming a child dropped by 20% in the first year, and up to 50% after 6 years.
Nine years of polling has shown that paid leave policies are a key way for companies to differentiate themselves as a JUST employer. Below, we examine companies leading on implementing paid leave policies to support their diverse workforces, and the results for their employees and their business.
Mastercard offers a bereavement leave policy, acknowledging the need for employees to take the time to grieve and attend to personal matters without the added stress of work responsibilities. Mastercard considers bereavement leave as part of their holistic wellbeing and flexibility offerings, which they continuously revisit to ensure they best support employees and company. Over the years, bereavement leave has expanded and evolved, and in their current policy, employees can take up to 20 days paid time off, which applies to both full- and part-time employees. Recent updates to the policy include expanded time for death of a parent (including in-laws and step-parents) and in the event of a stillbirth or miscarriage.
We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from employees, who attribute this benefit as a good example of our culture of decency. Feedback has also come in other forms, such as through the employee-led blog on the Mastercard homepage, called “Our Voices.” One employee reflected on their experience using the benefit to grieve the death of their grandparent and support their family, stating that Mastercard is a
Caring and inclusive workplace that values our lives and identities beyond our business hour deliverables.
Mastercard
Cisco has implemented a Critical Time Off policy that goes beyond traditional leave structures. This policy allows employees to take additional time off during significant life events such as the illness of a family member or personal emergencies. Cisco understands that certain situations require extra time and attention, and the Critical Time Off policy is designed to provide the necessary flexibility and support.
Three years ago, Adobe instituted Global Wellbeing Days, enabling their global community to collectively prioritize their wellbeing, disconnect, and recharge without worrying about work. In 2024, Adobe is offering six Global Wellbeing Days. These designated days serve as opportunities for employees to engage in activities and initiatives focused on improving their overall well-being.
At Adobe, we believe that taking time off is essential to the health and wellbeing of every employee. When our employees experience support both in and outside of the workplace, they are better equipped to unleash their creativity and innovate.
With Global Wellbeing Days, we’ve witnessed the profound impact of our community coming together for a collective day of rest. Employees use the time to reconnect with loved ones, focus on their health, or build community with other Adobe colleagues. For instance, the Adobe Golf network arranges golf outings on Global Wellbeing days, while some employees join fellow Adobe colleagues for activities like hikes, local pickleball games, and bike rides. Others choose to spend quality time with their family and pets.
Adobe
Medtronic, a leader in medical technology, understands the commitment of employees serving in the military reserves. To honor and support their dedication to national service, Medtronic provides paid time off for employees to fulfill their military reserve obligations. If reservists get deployed, Medtronic ventures far beyond what’s legally required. Medtronic holds reservists jobs for up to five years and provides differential compensation to cover the difference between their base pay and military pay. Benefits are covered for employees on military leave for up to 24 months. Their Family Care Leave policy includes up to six weeks paid leave for employees who are caregivers in a family where someone (such as a partner) is called to active military duty.
We’ve heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from workers who have utilized our military reserve leave. For them, it’s about more than just time off; it’s about peace of mind knowing that their service is valued and supported. We’ve had employees express deep gratitude for feeling recognized for their military commitments and the flexibility we offer.
Beyond military leave, we’re also proud to offer our employees caregiving support through Wellthy, a care concierge platform that works with families to ease their care burdens. Employees are matched with a dedicated Care Coordinator, who can help manage care in any capacity, big or small. This includes Wellthy’s deep expertise in veterans’ benefits, which can help veterans and their caregivers navigate benefits and coverage offered through the VA and other providers.
Our broader paid leave policies, including our military reserve leave, have significantly impacted our workforce in terms of retention, recruitment, and overall employee satisfaction. By prioritizing paid leave for military reservists, we demonstrate our commitment to supporting our employees’ diverse needs and honoring their service to the country. This approach not only strengthens our workforce by retaining experienced and dedicated individuals but also enhances our reputation as an employer of choice.
Our Family Care Leave, available globally — and expanded leave of up to 24 weeks paid for birthing parents in the U.S. — sets us apart in the marketplace. Combined with our Mission, which provides employees with a profound sense of purpose, our commitment to evolving benefits to meet employee needs is consistently highlighted as a top draw for candidates. …
Overall, our comprehensive approach to paid leave and talent development not only fosters a supportive and inclusive workplace culture but also positions us as a talent destination where diverse, top talent can come, grow, and thrive.
Denise King, Vice President, Global Benefits and Payroll, Medtronic
Pinterest recognizes the physical and emotional challenges that accompany miscarriage or stillbirth and is committed to supporting its employees during these difficult times. The company has a bereavement leave policy in place that covers Miscarriages and Stillbirth, acknowledging the need for employees to take the time they need to heal and cope with such personal losses.
Pinterest also provides a Family Care leave offering up to 12 weeks of full pay should employees need it to care for a seriously ill family member including a child under the care of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) post-birth. This is in addition to Pinterest’s 20 weeks of bonding leave for new parents.
At Pinterest, we’ve seen that people do their best work when they are most inspired, and feel seen and supported. We strive to create benefits that meet the real-world needs of our employees by supporting them through the different stages of family planning and child care, and by putting emotional wellbeing at the forefront. By listening to our employees, we’ve been able to shape our policies to support them when unexpected challenges arise. As our company continues to grow, we will keep working to create benefits that provide choices that are best for our employees’ careers and lives.
Adobe launched its U.S. sabbatical program to celebrate and honor employees’ innovation and contributions, recognizing them as the company’s greatest assets. Once employees reach five years of tenure, their initial sabbatical lasts four weeks. At 10 years, it extends to five weeks, and at 15 years, six weeks, remaining at this duration every five years thereafter. The Sabbatical Program is designed to provide employees with the time and space they need to rest and reflect, fostering creativity and innovation upon their return to work.
Adobe’s industry-leading paid leave policies foster a healthier, happier, and more engaged workforce by enabling employees to reinvigorate their creativity and return to work refreshed, primed to forge innovative ideas, and explore uncharted paths. In our annual employee survey, 87% of respondents expressed a willingness to recommend Adobe as an employer, while 89% stated they feel proud to work here. Upon returning from sabbatical, most employees shared in our sabbatical survey that they felt refreshed and welcomed as they transitioned back into their roles, noting that the time off fueled their motivation to do their best work upon return.
We are evaluating our wellbeing and benefits offerings each year by pulsing employee sentiment and benchmarking against the industry to remain competitive while providing optimal support to our global workforce.
Adobe
Understanding the unique challenges and health considerations that menopause can bring, Sanofi has implemented comprehensive menopause benefits to provide support and resources to its employees. These benefits may include access to menopause education and information, support groups, counseling services, flexible work arrangements, and healthcare coverage for treatments or therapies related to menopausal symptoms.
| “If you feel truly supported throughout your life cycle, whether it is maternity or menopause, you’ll be more engaged. I’m sure the new generation is more demanding on that.” Nathalie Grenache, SVP of People and Culture, Sanofi |
This interview was created in collaboration with the Financial Health Network.
Over the last few years, expectations of how employers treat their workers has undergone noticeable shifts. Employees from across sectors increasingly expect more holistic support from their employer. High-performing employers are taking note, recognizing that a holistic benefits strategy – one that focuses on the whole employee – results in a more stable, financially healthy workforce.
Part of a holistic benefits strategy includes recognizing individual workers as members of families and communities. Access to paid leave is estimated to increase mothers’ labor force participation by approximately 20 percent during the first year following their child’s birth. Furthermore, having access to paid medical leave has led workers to experience less stress from financial insecurity during a health shock. Recently, Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co) expanded its paid family leave plan to be more inclusive of its global workforce. Using data and feedback from employees, HR leaders designed a paid leave benefit that provided support to a wide range of employees.
In this interview produced by JUST Capital and Financial Health Network (two of the partners in the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative) we talk with Tracy Layney, Levi Strauss & Co.’s Chief Human Resources Officer, discussing the company’s decision to continue expanding their paid family leave plan.
One of the most important ways that LS&Co. stands up for our values is by standing up for our most important audience: our employees. We see it as our responsibility to create an environment that enables employees to be healthy, happy, and successful at work and at home.
We’ve seen the positive impact of paid leave in our employees’ lives since we introduced paid parental leave in 2016. Access to paid family and medical leave is not only the right thing to do for employees, but it’s the smart thing to do for business. So, in 2020 we expanded the benefit to include paid family leave. Then, at the beginning of this year, we enhanced the standard of our paid leave benefit around the globe to ensure our eligible employees have equitable access to time off work for maternity leave, parental bonding leave, and family care leave.
We had heard strong feedback on the need for paid family leave from our workforce. From a U.S. home office perspective, more than 50% of our population is made up of individuals between the ages of 36 and 55 – part of the so-called “sandwich generation” that is more likely to be caring for both a child and an elder at the same time. We realized that to truly support employee well-being, we must support employees’ ability to care for their closest family members, whether that person is a child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner, without worrying about their job or their paycheck.
Over the past few years, we’ve implemented and advocated for paid family leave and paid sick leave for our employees in certain locations and have seen firsthand the impact this has had on our employees’ lives. Our people make us who we are, and it’s our responsibility to create an environment that enables them to be healthy, happy, and successful, both at work and at home.
We wanted to ensure eligible employees receive the same paid leave benefit regardless of their geographic location, so we created a global core minimum standard. This allows us to provide eligible employees with up to:
Our goal with the enhancement was to create an equitable global core minimum standard, thus providing a stronger safety net for our employees wherever they are located. Our previous policy minimums were contingent on local laws and standards around the world — employees were in theory eligible for a variety of paid leave benefits depending on their region, but it didn’t always work out that way in practice. By raising the minimum standard across the board, many LS&Co. eligible employees will and are currently experiencing an enhancement in this benefit.
Our driving force and our motivation is our employees. At LS&Co., our people make us who we are and it’s our responsibility to create an environment that enables them to be healthy, happy, and successful at work and at home. Companies play a role in being the employer their employee needs in today’s landscape. This includes ensuring their people don’t have to choose between their careers and their health.
Companies should expand access to paid leave because this issue directly affects them, their workforces, and their ability to stay competitive in our modern U.S. economy. I would encourage everyone to foster conversations with their companies and dig deeper into the business rationale behind it.
Paid family leave is a relatively small investment with a very meaningful return, our actual expense is tracking under initial projected expense. Our paid family care policy globally costs us only 36% of what we’d projected, and since our global enhancement in January, we’ve had over 260 leaves across 20 countries.
During COVID, our company saw much lower attrition and impact on women than the average numbers across the U.S. and we believe it is because of our benefits and company culture (It is an expense to rehire and train people – paid leave boosts retention.) We realized that to truly support employee well-being, we must support employees’ ability to care for their closest family members, whether that person is a child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner, without worrying about their job or their paycheck.
Also, showing employees we have their backs cultivates loyalty, supports productivity, and fosters a culture where people do their best work. Comprehensive family and medical leave policies also help further equality and diversity goals, allowing more people to take advantage of professional opportunities that present themselves.
At Levi Strauss & Co., we are committed to offering a wide array of benefits and support for our employees in ways that are both tailored to their unique needs and can help them look after themselves and their loved ones, and one of those ways is through our ongoing mental health and well-being offerings. Most recently, we expanded access to Lyra Health’s emotional well-being support, available to all our employees around the world and their household family members.
Ongoing mental health resources are ingrained in the day-to-day culture and benefits of LS&Co. These include providing accessible, always-on resources that help our people prioritize mental and physical health and manage symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression, should they arise. We train our managers to lead from the heart and with understanding. There is no one-size-fits-all leadership style, but by making small changes in the way we communicate with our people, we can foster a culture rooted in authenticity and empathy.
NEW YORK – Today, JUST Capital released the second edition of the JUST Jobs Scorecard, a data-driven interactive tool for companies to measure performance and gauge transparency on key job quality practices and worker policies.
The new tool, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, provides a unique view into how companies are approaching one of their most critical stakeholders – their workers – and helps demonstrate how investing in their people can benefit both companies and workers alike. Overall, the Scorecard suggests that actual performance, as well as disclosure and transparency, are all on the rise, and that there is much room for future improvement.
Top performing companies include JPMorgan Chase & Co, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dayforce, Starbucks, Union Pacific, and American Electric Power Company. To use the interactive tool and dive into these leading companies’ scorecards, visit https://justcapital.com/the-just-jobs-scorecard/.
“The JUST Jobs Scorecard shows that companies are making steady progress on investing in the American worker,” said JUST Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “We know from our polling that across demographics and political affiliations, this is what the public wants. And we look forward to continuing our work with companies to help them do this as effectively as possible.”
The Scorecard assesses 31 distinct data points across six job quality topics, scoring companies on a scale of 0-4, with 4 being the highest. The final score is determined against research-backed thresholds, which range from “no disclosure” to “leading practice” on the issues that JUST tracks. Topics include:
After assessing performance and disclosure across all data points, JUST calculates each company’s overall average score in order to categorize their overall performance. Overall performance categories provide a quick snapshot of how far along a given company is on the journey toward transparency on job quality metrics. The following table outlines how companies are increasingly disclosing information related to job quality, but also have room to improve across the board.
The JUST Jobs Scorecard follows the release of the JUST 100. It is important to note the key ways in which this resource differs from the annual JUST Rankings, both in approach and intended use case. Unlike our annual Rankings, which assess a company’s performance relative to other companies, the Scorecard provides an individual measure of a company’s current standing on job quality disclosure and performance relative to minimum, common, and leading practice standards.
JUST Capital’s 2024 Rankings spotlight the corporations who are performing best on the business issues most valued by the American people. These rankings are determined by scoring performance across the full range of criteria and comparing companies head to head. For the annual Rankings, JUST Capital collects and analyzes corporate data to objectively evaluate the 1,000 largest public U.S. companies across 20 Issues identified through comprehensive, ongoing public opinion research on Americans’ attitudes toward responsible corporate behavior. JUST Capital has engaged more than 170,000 participants, on a fully representative basis, since 2015.
JUST Capital is an independent nonprofit that demonstrates how just business – defined by the priorities of the public – is better business. JUST’s process is objective, data driven and non-political. Its rankings consistently demonstrate that the companies that score best on the Issues Americans care about most also outperform their peers financially.
For more information, please reach out to marketing@justcapital.com
By Aleksandra Radeva, Lisa Simon, and James Enright
Americans care that companies pay a fair, living wage. In fact, JUST Capital’s report “2023 Issues Survey – The People’s Priorities,” which measures the business issues most important to the public, found that paying a fair, living wage was the highest priority for a fourth consecutive year, garnering widespread support as the top issue across almost every demographic group. In a year marked by high inflation and increasing cost of living around the country, the focus on living wages – or a wage rate that allows workers to meet basic budgetary needs – comes as no surprise.
To gain deeper understanding of wages at Russell 1000 companies, JUST Capital continued its partnership with Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence company that provides data and insights on employment at any company by using advanced techniques in machine learning.
This year’s results of the joint analysis show that among all U.S.-based Russell 1000 workers, 36.3% of workers are not making a family-sustaining living wage. That’s about 6.1 million full-time workers who are not making enough to support a family with another full-time working adult and two children. The analysis further estimates that about 19.2% of Russell 1000 workers do not earn enough to meet their own basic needs – or a living wage for one full-time employee without dependents.
These estimates are generated through the cutting-edge modeling techniques deployed by Revelio Labs. By absorbing and standardizing hundreds of millions of public employment records, Revelio Labs is able to infer employment compositions at any company, like how many people work at a company, the composition of workers in terms of roles and backgrounds or demographics, where a company’s workers live, and what those workers earn. In collaboration with JUST Capital, Revelio produces estimates for three data points used to measure performance on wages across America’s largest companies. To learn more about how these estimates are derived and how they feed into JUST Capital’s annual ranking of America’s Most JUST Companies, read our methodology summary or dig deeper into our full methodology.
Russell 1000 companies are the highest-performing public companies – and their workers, who make up around 10% of the U.S. workforce, earn more on average than other workers. In 2023, the median worker in the US earned $58,084 annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the median Russell 1000 worker earned 26.2% more – or $73,305. Russell 1000 workers also enjoyed higher wage gains in 2023, compared to average workers, which provided them with a slight advantage when weathering cost of living increases in 2023.
Industries naturally vary by their share of workers earning a living wage, depending on their composition of high-wage and lower-wage earners. Software and Biotech tend to have very high living wage scores, for example, as they typically employ many high wage earners and fewer workers in roles such as production or retail, which tend to be lower paid. Nevertheless, large variation in the share of workers earning a living wage exists within industries as well. This intra-industry range is evident in the chart below, which shows the difference between the average and highest shares of employees earning a living wage for a selection of industries. In the Industrial Goods industry, the difference is particularly striking – on average only 70% of workers in the industry are estimated to earn a living wage, but Rockwell Automation is estimated to pay almost 90% of its workers a living wage. Wayfair and Expedia also far outperform their industry average because their employee composition and core business differ from their industry peers, more closely resembling Tech companies than Retail and Restaurant and Leisure companies, respectively.
Last year, we compared all Russell 1000 worker salaries to one population-weighted national living wage threshold, no matter where a worker lives and works. This geographically generalized approach creates some unfair comparisons two ways: The relatively higher wage rates of workers in high-cost-of-living areas were being compared to a national cost-of-living threshold that was much too low compared to the cost those workers actually face. For example, the regional threshold for a two-adult, two-children household in the metropolitan area of New York City is $30.79 – 23% higher than the average national living wage threshold in 2023, $25.02. On the other hand, workers in low-cost areas of the country were being held to a much higher threshold than locally necessary. This year, Revelio Labs and JUST Capital decided to adopt a localized approach and compare worker salaries to the living wage threshold in their metropolitan area – a more ‘just’ comparison for everyone.
Interestingly, the difference in methodology makes little difference in the average share of workers earning a living wage. Under the national threshold, 65.4% of workers make a living wage, as opposed to 63.7% in the local threshold. The slightly lower share under the local threshold suggests that relatively more Russell 1000 workers live in high-cost areas. Comparing their wages to a local threshold makes it harder to meet the threshold.
This is not true across all industries. Some industries fare better using local thresholds, while most industries do slightly worse. The industries with higher shares of workers earning a living wage using geographically-specific thresholds are those with high concentrations of workers living in low-cost-of-living areas. Energy, Big Oil, and Chemical industries saw the greatest positive shift in the share of workers making a living wage. Media companies, on the other hand, have a higher share of workers in high-cost metropolitan areas, and their performance falters with the application of the correspondingly higher local living wage thresholds.
In the coming weeks, we’ll use further insights from these wage models to explore how America’s largest companies align with the increasing priority Americans place on creating equitable and just jobs.
We invite you to continue learning about the power of a living wage and its important role as a corporate threshold in this explainer co-authored by JUST Capital and MIT Living Wage Calculator. You can explore what prioritizing employees’ financial wellness looks like through the stories of companies participating in the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, implemented in partnership with PayPal, Financial Health Network, and Good Jobs Institute. And if you’d like to participate in JUST Capital’s growing network of corporate leaders committed to advancing worker wellbeing, please reach out at impact@justcapital.com to request more information or a conversation.
If you would like to learn more about the methodology behind JUST Capital’s and Revelio Labs’ wage models or your company’s performance in them, please reach out to our corporate engagement team at corpengage@justcapital.com.
If you would like more information or access to company workforce data, including salaries, headcounts, or employee composition to benchmark your company to your peers, please reach out to info@reveliolabs.com.
Lisa Simon is the Chief Economist and James Enright is a Research Analyst at Revelio Labs.
