All stories by Nick Masercola

Whether they are working from home full time or part time, or are on the frontline, they have to – in an unprecedented way – find a balance between supporting their families and ensuring their kids are learning.

Arguments in support of shareholder primacy and against stakeholder capitalism are out of sync with the voice of the American public, institutional investors, shareholders, and corporations themselves. 

In light of Labor Day this past Monday, we revisit a chart from early June to evaluate how companies’ treatment of their workers continues to affect financial performance throughout 2020.

As we head into Labor Day, six months into a pandemic that has caused us to revisit our assumptions about what it means to be a resilient business, its time to discuss the most important business stakeholders in our society – workers.

For Labor Day, we revisit our Chart of the Week from earlier this summer to reevaluate how companies who fully disclose their EEO-1 reports have performed throughout the trailing three months. 

Two events this week highlighted the extremes of worker empowerment in America today. Once again, the defining social issues of 2020 – COVID-19 and racial equity – were the catalyst. 

This week, we explore the risk profile of more just companies in comparison to less just ones, and show that JUST companies have less volatility.

We analyze how the BRT purpose statement signatories measure up to Americans’ expectations, and compare to other Russell 1000 companies.

Timed with the one-year anniversary of the Business Roundtable’s landmark redefinition of corporate purpose, we asked the public how they believe companies are doing in shifting from a myopic focus on shareholders to better serving the needs of all stakeholders. 

64% of Business Roundtable signatories released statements standing in solidarity with their Black and Brown colleagues and communities over the past few months. But how are they actually performing on key racial equity actions?

Providing hazard pay is stakeholder capitalism in action

As our economy sees increasing uncertainty after the market recovery in Q2, this week’s analysis dives into our 2020 Rankings to evaluate median maximum drawdowns by quintile.

If one thing has become clear this year, it’s that corporate stakeholder performance claims – on COVID-19, racial equity, and other “S” issues – must be backed by real action.

This week we look at severe communities controversies within the companies we cover, and see a significant outperformance for those who don’t have at least one severe controversy.

Americans want a “Great Reset”, but corporate actions to protect worker health, extend hazard pay and protect jobs are faltering.

This week, we double down on employee compensation and dive into our “Pays a Fair Wage” metric to showcase how companies’ wages differ across various job titles when compared to industry peers.

The DOL has stated that ESG funds are “vehicles for furthering social goals or policy objectives that are not in the financial interest of the plan.” We completely disagree – here’s why.

On July 27, JUST hosted a discussion with representatives from two of America’s largest pension funds and Bloomberg’s chief diversity reporter on why disclosing workforce demographic data is a crucial first step toward addressing racial inequity in corporate America. 

Last month, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new investment duties rule that would essentially keep ESG funds out of retirement accounts. Everything I’ve seen throughout my career shows that such a move would hurt investors.

Read the last JUST Report inside, and sign up to receive the full reports directly in your inbox!

We’ll unpack Humana’s stakeholder performance, long-term plan for sustainable value creation, response to COVID-19, and more.

JPMorgan Chase Research Institute puts out new research on unemployment benefits: “Allowing the $600 supplement to expire at the end of July 2020 could cause substantial declines in aggregate demand and potentially negative effects on the macro-economy.”

The New York Times suggests tying CEO pay to diversity outcomes as one of the most effective ways to improve diversity and inclusion across corporate America.

Robert F. Smith shares how the private sector can “turn our collective outrage into action,” to ensure our national reckoning becomes more than a passing moment.

In this Chart of the Week, we analyze how companies with a high percentage of employees making a national living wage have performed over the trailing one year.