Just Capital’s 2023 Issues Report – The People’s Priorities is by Jennifer Tonti, Managing Director, Survey Research & Insights.
In every year that we’ve been measuring which issues matter most to the public when it comes to just business behavior (what we call The People’s Priorities), the events of that year can determine which issues Americans deem more important than others, as well as the degree to which the public prioritizes each issue. The outputs of this ongoing study help provide a roadmap for companies regarding what issues they should be tracking and investing in to stay one step ahead of shifting expectations.
The top takeaway from this year’s polling is how enduring and consistent the public is when it comes to what they want the nation’s largest public companies to prioritize. Year after year, Americans say that companies should put workers squarely at the heart of their business practices, foremost by paying their workers a fair and living wage. Indeed, Worker Issues continue to command the highest share of priority (42%) among the 20 stakeholder-related issues we measure, with four of the five Worker Issues once again among the top six priorities of the public, with Workforce Advancement gaining in importance this year.
Even more encouraging is that despite vocal attempts by politicians to use business as a divisive wedge issue this year, Americans remain united, not divided, across political ideologies around what they want from companies today. As in years past, we found a broad consensus across demographic and political cohorts – liberal, conservative, high-income, low-income, men, women, young generations, older generations, and white, Black, and Hispanic Americans – that Workers should be corporate America’s top stakeholder priority and that paying a fair, living wage should be the number-one issue to prioritize.
Just’s annual Rankings process begins with focus group conversations with a diverse mix of Americans across the U.S., the goal of which is to understand the actions and behaviors they expect from a “just” business. Focus groups enable our research team to hear the unvarnished voice of the public speak about what issues matter most, and whether their opinions have changed over time. The polling team then distills the major themes of these discussions into statements that capture these concepts, which we call “Issues.” In 2023 (as in the past two years), this work yielded 20 Issues.
Since the public initially tells us that all of these Issues are of high importance, we then conduct a choice modeling exercise as part of our Annual Survey work, enabling us to derive the relative importance of these 20 Issues. From here, we extract a “weight” per Issue that we use as the foundation for our Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies. The weights below reflect the probability that an individual would choose that Issue as most important to defining a just company, based on a representative sample of 3,001 Americans. These weights power our analysis of corporate stakeholder performance at the country’s largest companies, including our annual Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies.
Each Issue is color-coded by the stakeholder it most impacts. While we reference the prioritization of several Issues in this report, please note that the relative importance between many of these Issues often varies by a fraction of a percentage point.
As we saw in 2022, four of the five Worker Issues are among the top six-ranked issues overall. The top-most prioritized issue, “Pays workers fairly and offers a living wage that covers the cost of basic needs at the local level” has been the number one issue for the last six years in a row, and will comprise a substantial 17.7% of companies’ scores in our upcoming 2024 Rankings. This percentage, though lower than we saw last year (21.2%), is still far-and-away the highest across all 20 issues. And the issue is ranked first among nearly every demographic cohort.
From auto to health care to entertainment, 2023 has marked a year of labor strikes across industries. Rising inflation, rapid evolution of AI technology, and the broader impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. workforce have fueled demands for better pay, working conditions, and job security. Even threats of a strike, as was the case for airline pilots and UPS workers this year, has spurred companies to raise wages and enhance benefits. Workers are no longer willing to accept pay that doesn’t allow them to provide for themselves or their families.
In 2023, “Focuses on workforce retention and employee advancement by providing training, education, and career development opportunities” comprises 8.3% of a company’s score, and now is the second highest-ranked worker issue. In the past two years, we’ve seen the issue of retention and advancement steadily increase in importance among the public. This increase occurs alongside the rapid evolution and adoption of AI and other technology by many employers. Fears of how this technology could replace, or diminish, certain jobs in part fueled strikes from Hollywood writers and actors and auto workers. As more workers fear losing their jobs, investing in growth, training, and opportunities for employees can have a positive effect on retention and send an important signal to workers that employers value them. Many companies have already started to recognize and act on this.
Benefits and Worker Health & Safety rank fifth and sixth among the public’s priorities. “Offers a quality benefits package and supports good work-life balance for all employees” comprises 7.6% of a company’s score, up from 6.2% in the previous year. “Protects the health, safety, and well-being of workers beyond what is required by law” remains one highest ranked issues at number six, but its importance has decreased from 7.6% last year to 5.8% this year as the urgency of worker health and safety slows after the height of the pandemic.
One of the obvious reasons why Worker Issues consistently get the highest prioritization among the five stakeholder groups may be attributable to the fact that at some point or another in everyone’s life, they are a worker. Thus, these issues are arguably closer to home than those that are reportedly as important overall, but come in at a lower relative priority (such as communities or the environment) in our polling. What the continued prioritization of Worker Issues across seven years of gathering this data is definitely saying is that, despite all the work companies are doing to make sure their workforce is happy and protected, there is still more to do. A recent Deloitte survey found that there is a marked discrepancy in perceptions of workforce well-being between employees and employers. The survey found that while many leaders say they’re taking accountability for workforce well-being, workers simply aren’t seeing their efforts.
There is a very clear business case for corporate leaders to focus on Worker Issues. Investing in good jobs that provide strong benefits, fair wages, and opportunities for advancement is a value generator for companies. In March, we soft launched the first iteration of the Just Jobs Scorecard and have plans to publicly launch the Scorecard in early 2024. The tool helps companies better understand their current performance on a range of job quality metrics like training and development, and how they could improve. When examining the top-scoring companies across the Scorecard’s categories, we found they outperformed their peers in 2022. Prioritizing worker issues is an opportunity for companies to lead and, in turn, boost their bottom line.
One Issue that falls under the Communities stakeholder, “Creates jobs in the U.S. and provides employment opportunities for communities that need them,” is once again second in relative importance, comprising 11.8% of a company’s score in our Rankings. Two in three respondents (66%) say that creating jobs in the U.S. is more important than last year.
Accountability to Stakeholders, an issue that falls under Shareholders & Governance, is of key importance to Americans as well. “Has an independent, diverse board that holds leadership accountable to the needs of workers, customers, communities, the environment, and shareholders” comprises 9.7% of a company’s score, and is the third most important Issue in 2023, reinforcing the fact that in the eyes of everyday Americans, companies have a broad responsibility to serve all the stakeholders that drive the long-term success of the company (not just shareholders), and that leadership should be held accountable by its board.
The People’s Priorities are based on responses from more than 3,000 U.S. adults, who are a full representative cross-section of Americans. This means we hear from a variety of voices, both by demographic such as race/ethnicity, gender, income levels, and age, as well as behavioral metrics such as political ideologies or whether or not respondents are active investors. What we found was, despite it being a year with increasingly divisive rhetoric in politics and in the media, the public remains remarkably consistent in what they want companies to prioritize today. Across every demographic group we surveyed, whether political affiliation, race, gender, age, or income group, Americans are united in wanting companies to prioritize Workers as the most important stakeholder and nearly all cohorts prioritize the same top three Issues: Pays a fair, living wage; Creates jobs in the U.S.; and Prioritizes accountability to all stakeholders.
To provide further clarity around how to better balance stakeholder interests, we classify each Issue by the stakeholder it affects most, organizing the 20 Issues into five stakeholder groups: Workers, Customers, Communities, the Environment, and Shareholders & Governance.
Specifically, we assign each of the 20 Issues to the one (and only one) stakeholder it most impacts. For example: “Compels leadership to act ethically and with integrity and avoid wrongdoings” is assigned to Shareholders & Governance, whereas “Is transparent in communications with customers about its products, services, and operations” is assigned to the Customers stakeholder. The weight of each stakeholder group is calculated by summing all of its associated Issue weights.
Workers (42%)
For the sixth consecutive year, the American public prioritizes Workers as the most important stakeholder by a significant margin. The Workers stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it invests in its employees, including (1) paying a fair, living wage; (2) supporting workforce retention, advancement, and training; (3) providing benefits and work-life balance; (4) protecting worker health and safety; and (5) cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Communities (18%)
The Communities stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it supports its communities, including (1) creating jobs in the U.S.; (2) addressing human rights issues in the supply chain; (3) contributing to community development; and (4) giving back to local communities.
Shareholders & Governance (16%)
Issues included in this grouping explore how a company maintains good governance and delivers value to its shareholders by (1) prioritizing accountability to all stakeholders; (2) acting ethically at the leadership level; and (2) generating returns for investors.
Customers (14%)
The Customers stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it treats its customers, including (1) protecting customer privacy; (2) treating customers fairly; (3) communicating transparently; and (4) making beneficial products.
Environment (11%)
The Environment stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it reduces its environmental impact, including (1) minimizing pollution; (2) using sustainable materials; (3) combating climate change; and (4) using resources efficiently.
Year after year, we continue to see that the public supports a movement away from shareholder primacy toward a more stakeholder value-driven operational model of business, one that takes America’s largest companies on a journey to becoming more just. Results from this latest survey shows that the areas Americans want corporations to prioritize have not changed substantially in the past few years. The labor strikes and demands of the last year, however, have added new urgency to them.
It’s become more clear to corporate America that ignoring these priorities presents a significant risk to business. Now is the time for proactive action. And the views of the American public offer a helpful roadmap. We hope that this report once again provides clear guidance on the specific actions businesses can take today to rebuild trust in business and markets as a force for good.
A Representative Look at the Public’s Views
Since its inception, the mission of Just Capital is to demonstrate how just business – defined by the priorities of the public – is better business. Our goal is to help companies create value for all their stakeholders – their workers, customers, communities, the environment, and shareholders – by focusing on the issues that matter most to the American public. The goal is to help companies improve, and in turn, improve the lives of their workers, customers, and society writ large.
At the core of our work is a robust research program that starts with focus groups in which we ask the American public to identify the policies, practices, and behaviors companies should prioritize to be considered just, (which we call “Issues”). These Issues include fair pay and living wage; a more diverse and inclusive workplace; stronger, healthier communities; good jobs; a cleaner environment; and more. Then, based on sophisticated polling of a representative sample of Americans, we estimate the relative importance of these behaviors – in other words, how important to defining a just company each behavior is relative to others.
Since 2015, Just Capital has surveyed more than 172,000 Americans – representative of the U.S. adult population – asking them to define just business behavior. For the past two years, we have partnered with SSRS, an objective, non-partisan research institution that provides scientifically rigorous statistical surveys of the U.S. population, to survey more than 3,000 Americans on their perspectives.
Defining a Just Company
Before answering questions about the just behavior of large companies, it is important for respondents to have a clear definition of the concept. Below is the definition we have provided to our focus group and survey respondents since 2022: A just company operates in a way that serves its workers, customers, shareholders, the environment, and the communities it affects, even if it comes at a cost.
Summary of Methods
We conducted the 20 question survey online with a probability-based sample attained through the exhaustive statistical sampling methods employed by SSRS. The SSRS Opinion Panel is a nationally representative probability-based web panel, and findings are generalizable to the general adult population.
The full survey was conducted from June 23 to July 5, 2023 among a general population sample of 3,001 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults 18+ years of age, with an oversample of 590 Hispanic and 411 non-Hispanic Black respondents. Panelists were sent an email invitation to take the survey online as well as up to eight reminder emails throughout the field period. The survey program was optimized so that respondents could complete it using a desktop or laptop computer as well as a mobile device. In total, 900 respondents completed the survey on a computer and 2,101 completed it on a mobile device.
The margin of error is +/- 2.2% at the 95% confidence level. Results were weighted to U.S. Census parameters for age, gender, education, race/Hispanic ethnicity, and Census Division to ensure representativeness of the U.S. population. All margins of error include “design effects” to adjust for the effects of weighting.
To identify the priorities of the public, we calculate for each Issue the probability that an individual would choose that as most important to defining a just company. As such, there are 20 probabilities calculated from the 20 Issues. These probabilities can be referred to as weights as each represents the relative importance of one Issue versus another. To illustrate more explicitly, the Issue “Creates jobs in the U.S.” was assigned a weight of 11.8% as there is a 1.18 in 10 chance that a respondent chosen at random will identify this Issue as most important in defining a just company. By comparison, the weight assigned to “Generates returns for investors over the long term” has a 1.7% weight.
Our full body of survey work for 2023 also includes six focus groups conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll.
What makes a good job? It’s a question that’s driving many conversations today – from picket lines with auto employees and Starbucks baristas to C-suites and boardrooms across the country.
At CNBC’s 2023 Workforce Executive Council Summit this week, Just Capital President Alison Omens joined moderator CNBC editor Susan Caminiti and multiple company executives for a panel discussion focusing on that very question.
A C-suite leader from a major retailer explained that every company needs to deliver on fundamentals for workers, by providing a living wage, benefits, and safety. But she said there’s “much room for leadership” on something else workers want – opportunity. Meaning, the ability to climb the ladder from an hourly position to a salaried one, or the chance to start a strong career without necessarily having a college degree.
Our polling, which Alison discussed, supports that insight. JUST’s research shows that Americans want three main things: a job that pays fairly and offers a local living wage; protects their health and well-being; and supports advancement, upskilling, and training – or as the retail company leader dubbed it, “opportunity.”
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults do not have a college degree – and so for millions of Americans, these “opportunity” investments from business leaders can mean the difference between living paycheck to paycheck or a stable, middle-class life.
There’s much happening in this area. Just this month, IBM announced new skills training in climate technology for students in vulnerable communities. Visa launched new upskilling programs. Amazon highlighted the success of its apprenticeship programs. And Microsoft partnered with a local technical college to offer new training courses.
Workforce opportunity is critical to our partnerships with companies and our mission overall. We’ll be tracking it closely.
Be well,
Martin
In an on-air segment, CNBC’s Pippa Stevens covers JUST Capital’s 2023 Views on Business Survey Report. The report finds that Americans are increasingly skeptical of corporate America’s promises to do better. For example, when it comes to promoting an economy that serves all Americans, 91% of Americans agree it is important, but only 38% agree companies are doing well – a 53 percentage point divide.
Just Capital’s investor team pens an interesting analysis that finds that among negative earners in the Russell 1000, JUST leaders have outperformed laggards by almost 40% since January 2020.
“What we’re really eager to see next year is does the decline in wage growth translate to lower inflation? There was the idea that the labor market was going to be a continuing source of fuel for higher inflation. [But] wage spiral doesn’t seem evident at all in this data. The concern is that maybe things start to stall out on the inflation side. And luckily, we haven’t seen that yet.”
Fortune reports that Bill Gates believes everyone will have an AI personal assistant in five years, and that it will fundamentally change the way people live and work. Gates sees this evolution in AI as going beyond pure productivity-boosting, saying that these “agents” could help generate a business plan or answer employee questions in a meeting.
SAG-AFTRA has officially released the details of its latest union contract, and those around AI performers are particularly interesting. Rolling Stone reports that companies must request consent before making digital replicas of actors and must disclose how the replica will be used. Not everyone is pleased with this deal. Some, like Justine Bateman, who was an AI advisor to the actor’s union, think that the deal leaves far too many loopholes that would allow studios to slowly push out real actors.
Airbnb has acquired GamePlanner.AI, its first acquisition as a public company, to help design full bespoke trips and stays for users based on previous interests.
Honda and Hyundai have joined Toyota in raising wages for their U.S. workers and cutting down on how long pay increases take, fearing that union strikes will soon push past the midwest and into foreign auto manufacturers.
CNBC reports that union workers at GM ratified the UAW’s new contract with the automaker. Union workers at Ford and Stellantis are expected to ratify the new contracts as of Thursday early evening – though the votes have been closer than expected. NPR digs into why some union workers are voting ‘no’ on the deal.
A new Deloitte report highlights a significant disparity between C-suite leaders’ perceptions of worker well-being and the actual experiences of workers. Employee well-being has worsened across a number of dimensions, including physical, mental, social, and financial well-being, the report finds.
According to a new Bloomberg Intelligence survey, 89% of investors believe using ESG metrics is now mainstream, despite the political pushes to do away with them, and C-suite executives feel they help shape a “more robust corporate strategy.”
The Washington Post reports that the latest National Climate Assessment paints a grim picture: weather-driven disasters are happening far more frequently and are costing the U.S. about $150 billion each year, on average.
The Wall Street Journal reports that thousands of unionized Starbucks workers have gone on strike for ‘Red Cup Day’, the company’s largest promotion every year, in order to progress labor talks.
Citigroup CEO Jane Frasier announces the company’s first wave of layoffs on Wednesday, working from middle management down to the rank-and-file employees by February in a bid to try and pull the company out of a stock slump.
The Harris Poll (in conjunction with EdAssist) found that 77% of Americans believe other forms of education like certifications and online courses are more useful than a traditional college degree, and that upskilling at a job is becoming a far more attractive benefit for many younger workers.
One of the most revealing charts from our 2023 Views on Business Report shows what issues Americans want corporations to tackle, and if they see companies following up. Most importantly, while 91% of Americans want companies to push for an economy that serves all Americans, only 38% agree companies are doing well. Explore more of the results here.
This report was written by Jill Mizell, Director of Survey Research.
Against the backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty, the American tech sector – long a bastion of growth, innovation, and prosperity – has been rolling out waves of layoffs over the past year, with companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, and more letting go an estimated 168,000 tech workers in 2023 alone, already surpassing the total number of tech jobs cut in 2022 (161,000). And while the labor market is still holding strong, with 10.8 million jobs open in the U.S. today, tech layoffs could signal further economic complications, including job cuts across other industries, and even be a harbinger of recession.
With companies increasingly turning to layoffs as a cost-cutting measure, it’s expected that tens of thousands more workers will be impacted. Layoffs are, it seems, an inevitability for many of America’s knowledge workers, and the question on the minds of corporate leaders and workers alike is: can layoffs be “just?”
As part of Just’s ongoing work to understand how the public defines just business behavior, we turned to Americans to get their take on what it means to conduct ethical and just layoffs – and whether that is even possible. As we forge ahead in an increasingly unpredictable job market, the public’s views can offer critical insight for business leaders looking to consider the full impact of forthcoming and potential layoffs.
Key findings from Jusr Capital’s survey include:
With ongoing mass tech layoffs continuing to make headlines, it’s no surprise that Americans are in the know. When we asked respondents whether they were familiar with this issue, a large majority (85%) shared that they have heard about recent mass job cuts in the tech industry, and one-third (33%) told us they’ve heard a lot about the job cuts.
Beyond just being familiar with the latest news, large percentages of Americans also believe layoffs could have been avoided – in particular, strong majorities of younger respondents and those who have heard about the most recent waves of layoffs, as well as Democrats and Independents.
Overall, half of Americans (48%) believe these mass job cuts in tech could have been avoided with proper planning, while 28% believe they were unavoidable due to economic uncertainty and 24% aren’t sure whether the job cuts were avoidable or not.
Among those that told us they’ve heard a lot about recent tech layoffs, respondents are more likely than others to say these job cuts could have been avoided (55%, compared to 45% of people who have heard a little about tech layoffs and 43% of people who have not heard about the tech layoffs).
Younger cohorts are significantly more likely to believe layoffs could have been avoided. 69% of Gen Z respondents (people aged 18-26) believe these tech layoffs were avoidable with proper planning, compared to 52% of Millennials, 46% of Gen X, and 40% of Boomers. Nearly a third of Boomers (31%) and Gen X (31%) say the mass layoffs in tech were unavoidable, making them twice as likely as Gen Z to say so (just 15% of Gen Z respondents believe the layoffs were unavoidable).
We also see a stark contrast when we look at responses by political party. While 50% of Democrats and 55% Independents believe recent mass layoffs in tech could have been avoided, just 36% of Republicans see them as avoidable.
With mass layoffs ongoing, the question of ethics is an inevitable one, and we turned to the public to ask them whether they believe mass layoffs can be ethical. A plurality of 43% believes that the ethics of mass job cuts depends on the situation, while 28% believe mass layoffs are unethical corporate behavior. Just 3% of Americans believe job cuts are ethical corporate behavior, and 13% believe layoffs are not an ethical issue.
Whether a respondent believes these layoffs could have been avoided or not plays a significant role in their perception of corporate ethics around layoffs. People who believe these layoffs were avoidable are more than three times as likely to say mass layoffs are unethical corporate behavior than those who believe the layoffs were unavoidable (44% vs. 12%).
On the flip side, people who felt the layoffs were unavoidable are twice as likely to say that mass job cuts are not an ethical issue at all compared to those who believe the layoffs could have been avoided (20% vs. 9%). People who think the layoffs were unavoidable are also more likely to say that the ethics of layoffs depend on the situation compared to those who believe the layoffs could have been avoided (53% vs. 35%).
Regardless of the public’s perspectives on avoidability and ethics, layoffs show no immediate sign of stopping. We asked respondents what companies should consider in order to conduct layoffs in as just and ethical a way as possible. Americans agreed that, for corporations to conduct layoffs in an ethical way, they must give workers advance notice in a respectful manner (69%); provide generous severance packages to workers including pay and health care coverage (61%); provide access to job finding services at no cost (52%); and reduce the number of jobs to cut by decreasing other costs as much as possible (52%).
When it comes to severance packages specifically, there is significant divergence between respondents with differing political views. 46% of Republicans believe companies conducting mass layoffs should provide generous severance packages, compared to 75% of Democrats and 63% of Independents.
When we asked the public what they think the short- and long-term impacts of mass layoffs might be, strong majorities shared that they believe mass layoffs have a negative impact on workers’ sense of job security (85%) and the overall economy (71%).
A plurality of 41% believes that mass layoffs will have a positive effect on short-term profits, while 27% believe layoffs will have a negative impact and 19% believe layoffs do not impact short-term profits either way.
When it comes to long-term profits, a plurality of 35% believe layoffs will have a negative impact on long-term profits, while 26% believe layoffs will have a positive impact and 22% believe layoffs do not impact long-term profits either way.
As Americans weather the ongoing storm of economic uncertainty, it’s likely that layoffs will continue to unfold in the tech sector and spread to other industries, as we are already seeing in media and manufacturing – and this week, with McDonald’s closing its headquarters in anticipation of job cut announcements. Corporate leaders will continue to face difficult decisions on how to cut costs – and while mass tech layoffs may or may not have been avoidable, they are happening now, and Americans are watching closely to learn whether companies are conducting these layoffs in a way that is ethical and just, and that minimizes negative impacts. It’s not yet clear how widespread these layoffs could become, or to what extent they will impact that broader job market, but as corporate leaders prepare for what to come, the voice of the public provides crucial guidance on how to navigate this challenging time in as just and ethical a way as possible.
This survey was conducted online and by phone in both English and Spanish within the United States by SSRS on behalf of Just Capital. The survey fielded from March 3 to March 7, 2023. SSRS interviewed a representative sample of 1,027 U.S. adults (age 18 or older) for this survey from among its multi-mode Opinion Panel, a nationally representative, geographically diverse and probability-based panel reaching respondents in all 50 states.
The margin of error is +/- 3.6% at a 95% confidence level. Results were weighted to U.S. Census parameters for age, gender, education, race/Hispanic ethnicity, Census Division and specifically surrounding party identification in order to ensure representativeness of the U.S. population. All margins of error include “design effects” to adjust for the effects of weighting. Explore the topline results, question wording, and demographic breakdowns by question here. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact jmizell@justcapital.com.
The Americans’ Views on Business Survey was written by Jennifer Tonti, Managing Director of Survey Research & Insights.
As 2022 draws to a close, Americans are faced with a number of uncomfortable economic challenges, including fears over job security and layoffs, stubbornly high inflation, a looming recession, and a political climate rife with rancor and division. Suddenly, the already precarious path to prosperity for tens of millions of people seems even more out of reach.
Such is the backdrop to our Annual Survey on the Priorities of the Public, in which we poll Americans about their Views on Business – specifically, whether they think America’s largest companies are moving toward creating a more just economy and society. Since 2015, Just Capital has surveyed more than 160,000 Americans on a fully representative basis. This survey not only gives us unique and critically important insights into how Americans think about business today, it also gives us a pulse on their hopes and fears, and – when viewed in the context of our previous seven years’ of polling – how each have shifted in time.
In our 2022 Issues Report –The People’s Priorities we found that that across every demographic group, whether political affiliation, race, gender, age, or income group, Americans are united in wanting companies to prioritize Workers as the most important stakeholder and Paying a fair, living wage as the most important business Issue today.
In this companion survey, we find that Americans consistently believe that companies remain firmly wedded to the shareholder primacy model and that there continues to be a basic mismatch between what the public wants companies to prioritize (their workers) and what they perceive companies are actually prioritizing (their shareholders).
We also find that perceptions on whether capitalism is working for the average American plummeted 10 percentage points this year, with a stark difference between those who think capitalism is working (high-income workers, older Americans, Conservatives), and those who do not think capitalism is working (lower-income and hourly workers, Black and Hispanic Americans, younger Americans, and Liberals).
As Edelman saw in its new study, “The Changing Role of the Corporation in Society,” Americans believe businesses and CEOs have a role to play in addressing societal issues, agreeing most when it comes to tackling issues like gender equity in the workplace (equal pay), income inequality, and advancing racial equity. CEOs may experience more pushback when taking a stand to address issues like protecting LGBTQ rights, women’s reproductive rights, and climate change, as the political polarization around those issues is high.
Despite an uptick in positive impressions during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that companies were stepping up to take care of stakeholders, Americans are now less likely to think companies are following through. They also expect business to talk less and act more. The good news: 81% of Americans believe that business can be a powerful force of societal change and 84% believe people can be effective when they act together to try to change companies’ behaviors. Americans are also willing to support change and help companies transition toward a just economy by paying more for just products and even accepting less pay to work for just companies.
In this year’s survey, we unpack these trends in detail, seeking to understand what matters most to Americans today, against the backdrop of our shifting economic and societal climate, and what corporate leaders should prioritize to live up to the expectations of the public. Let’s take a deeper look at the data.
More than two in three Americans (68%) say that “our current form of capitalism is not working for the average American,” a 10-point increase in negative sentiment from just one year ago. In its recent survey on how Americans perceive capitalism, Pew Research similarly finds modest declines.
In a recent talk, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman discussed why capitalism needs an upgrade, warning, “To many people who are left out of the system, who struggle to make ends meet and don’t believe in the American dream anymore, they tend to radicalize to the far left or far right. So how do we strengthen our democracy by thinking more broadly?”
When we look across demographic breaks, we find substantial differences in Americans’ opinions of whether capitalism is working. Lower-income and hourly workers, Black and Hispanic Americans, temp workers, younger Americans, and Liberals are all far less likely to agree that “our current form of capitalism works for the average American” than white Americans, older Americans, those in high income households, and Conservatives.
Americans agree that companies are on the wrong path, with just 20% agreeing that they’re heading in the right direction – a downward trend from a high of 30% in 2018. What’s more, over half of Americans (51%) now say companies are headed in the wrong direction, a steady trend upward, and a 13 percentage point increase, since 2018.
With regard to just business behavior specifically, more Americans (58%) say that companies are very or somewhat just than say they are not very or not at all just – however, that number is down from a high of 66% in 2021.
When we ask the public whether they think companies are becoming more or less just over time, even though a plurality say that they have stayed about the same, the percentage 0f respondents who say companies are becoming less just has grown in the past year, from 26% in 2021 to 31% in 2022.
The proportion of Americans who trust versus distrust large U.S. companies had been roughly the same over the past few years, but in 2022 that changed, with more Americans now saying that they distrust companies (50%) than trust them (45%).
We see these findings further confirmed by a new question we asked this year – if people trust CEOs to do right by their employees – and only about one in three agreed that they “trust CEOs to look out for the interests of their workers.”
A key question in our Americans’ Views on Business survey asks the public’s thoughts about which stakeholder – shareholders, customers, or workers – they think companies prioritize most. For six years running, and by a significant but varied margin, half of Americans say that shareholders are the top priority in companies’ eyes, versus 31% who say workers and 19% who say customers. When comparing these responses to what the public said in our Annual Survey six years ago, we see two major changes over time.
First, while the percentage who say employees are the top priority has grown substantially, from 9% to 31%, the uptick in this view has now waned since 2020. And second, while the degree to which the public believes shareholders are the top priority has diminished – from 69% in 2017 to 50% in 2022 – it has actually risen since the challenges of 2020. Overall, this paints a picture of an opportunity perhaps lost – or at least not fully captured – by companies to show they are placing workers’ interests at least on par with shareholders’.
In keeping with these findings, the public also agrees that companies are not living up to their commitments to take action on critical societal challenges. In the two years since the Business Roundtable announced a movement away from shareholder primacy, our data show that the public remains skeptical on whether America’s largest companies are actually following through on their commitments to a stakeholder model, with 86% agreeing that companies “often hide behind public declarations of support for stakeholders but don’t walk the walk.”
The following chart shows that the public believes that companies have the most positive impact on their shareholders (75%) at a greater margin than other stakeholders, including customers (65%), the health & safety of their workforce (64%), quality jobs (56%), and local communities (55%).
Far fewer say that the environment and low-wage workers are positively impacted by the behavior of large companies. Compare the one in three Americans who say companies have a positive impact on the “financial well-being of their lowest-paid workers” to nearly twice as many who say “their shareholders” in the chart above.
Looking at positive impact measures over time, the public’s perspective is that companies are moving in the wrong direction. For example, the percentage who say companies have a positive impact on society overall has fallen from a high of 58% in 2018 to just 49% of Americans in 2022.
There are similar dips in the percentage of Americans who say companies have a positive impact on the quality of U.S. jobs and the well-being of local communities.
Yet the percentage who say companies have a positive impact on shareholders is substantially higher, and even increases slightly over the past five years.
Workers are the engine of a company, and from our recent survey on workers and wages, it is clear that Americans firmly believe that companies that invest in their workers by paying a living wage are more competitive in their industries, better for the economy overall, and more profitable in the long term. In this survey, we find that Americans again agree that the focus of a just company should be its workforce, with majorities agreeing with the following statements:
What’s more, there is remarkable consensus on these issues when looking across political divides, suggesting that, despite sentiment that the right and left are polarized when it comes to issues like a living wage or even forms of collective bargaining, liberals and conservatives are more aligned than we might think.
To protect workers’ right to fair treatment, almost nine in 10 say that workers should have the right to collectively bargain for pay and other protections. This strong agreement on collective bargaining tracks with public pollster Gallup, which finds that Americans’ approval of labor unions is at its highest point since 1965.
What’s more, we find that support for unionization of the workforce is consistent across all political ideologies. Consider what Amazon union leader Chris Smalls said at a hearing on Amazon’s labor practices in May of 2022:
Companies looking to stave off unionization trends should assess their workers’ financial wellness to ensure all employees are able to make ends meet. In this survey we heard that more than 80% agree that companies need to pay their lowest-paid workers a living wage – something we’ve seen reinforced with strong agreement from the public in our survey on workers and wages, which found that 84% agree that large companies should pay employees enough to make ends meet. Our 2022 People’s Priorities Survey also echoed this sentiment, with “Paying a fair, living wage” as the #1 Issue for the public, gaining more than 20 percentage points in importance over the last two years.
Inflation and an impending recession are already impacting the lives and pocketbooks of most Americans, meanwhile the lowest-wage workers in the U.S. unfortunately bear the brunt when wages don’t keep up with inflation.
In an effort to better understand the state of corporate America when it comes to paying a living wage, Just Capital has also refined its measurement of this issue for our upcoming 2023 Rankings. Among our initial findings? About half of Russell 1000 employees do not make a family-sustaining living wage.
With job quits rates hovering at about 4 million between August 2021 and August 2022, the phenomenon alternately called The Great Resignation and The Great Reassessment could flourish. To that end, a large majority of Americans think this was a key moment for worker power: 79% agree that The Great Resignation is an opportunity to hit the reset button and focus on workers.
Finally, when it comes to a company’s profits, Americans say that workers are not getting their fair share of the pie: 84% agree that companies don’t share enough of their success with their workers. With profits surging 35% last year, 2021 was the most profitable year for American corporations since 1950. And while employee compensation rose 11%, the so-called labor share of national income – the portion that’s paid out as wages and salaries – fell back to pre-pandemic levels. It’s clear that American workers aren’t sharing in the prosperity they are helping companies create.
In recent years, CEOs have found themselves in the position of needing to speak out on both critical and contentious issues, and the landscape is becoming more challenging to navigate as more politicians attempt to bring companies into culture war issues as the election cycle heats up. To help corporate leaders understand public expectations during these tumultuous times, we’ve asked Americans each year for the last five years if they believe the CEOs of large companies have a responsibility to take a stand on important societal issues. This year, two-thirds of Americans overall – a number that has remained relatively stable in our years of polling – believe CEOs of large companies have a responsibility to take a stand.
There are, however, significant differences in the degree of agreement when looking at this question across political breaks: with far fewer Conservatives agreeing CEOs have a responsibility to take a stand (44%) compared to their Liberal (81%) or Moderate (75%) peers.
Of the almost two-thirds who say that CEOs have a responsibility to take a stand, another two-thirds of that group says they should do so no matter the issue, rather than focusing solely on issues that directly impact their business.
With a majority of Americans saying that CEOs should take a stand on issues, the question then becomes which societal issues should they address. In response to this year’s survey, a substantial proportion of the public says corporate leadership has a role to play in addressing all of the following issues, with income inequality and gender and racial equity receiving the highest levels of support (77% or more).
And although majorities say CEOs have a role to play in these issues, there is less consensus when looking across political breaks, with Conservatives less in support of CEOs taking a stand on these specific issues than their Moderate or Liberal counterparts. There is particularly low support from Conservatives when it comes to LGBTQ rights, women’s reproductive rights, and climate change (45% or less).
However, for the question of upholding our democracy – an issue that has become increasingly politically divisive – majorities of all three political ideologies agree that CEOs have a role to play in protecting both democracy and voting rights. Those numbers are bolstered by the 72% of Americans who say corporate America has a responsibility to protect the democratic process by promoting free and fair elections.
Positive assessments of corporate behavior are also informed by the public’s views on how companies have weathered recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, half of Americans say companies have shown leadership throughout the pandemic, down from a high last year of 54%.
When we look at another pressing social issue – advancing racial equity – a higher percentage (60%) of Americans say companies are doing well demonstrating a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, a number that has stayed steady over the two years that we’ve tracked views on this issue.
Still, there is ample room to improve: almost half (47%) of Americans agree that companies are not doing enough today to hire and promote Black Americans in the workforce. That number rises to 83% among Black Americans.
Action on these issues have lasting impact for the public, with a large majority of Americans saying they will remember the companies that took missteps in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic (68%) as well as those that took missteps on issues related to racial injustice (67%).
The good news? Americans are willing to support change and help companies transition to a just economy. We asked Americans to tell us whether they would take positive action in supporting companies that are more just, and two-thirds or more said that they would either accept less pay in a new job at a just company, and/or pay more for a product made or sold by a just company.
This comes at no surprise when we see that a whopping 84% of Americans believe that their own actions can shape the future: a level double-digits higher than when we first asked this question in 2017 (71%).
That Americans have strong opinions about large U.S. companies may be attributable to the degree to which the public is informed about corporate activities and behavior (in 2022, 23% say they are Informed or Very Informed, up from 18% in 2020).
While this year’s Americans’ Views on Business survey shows an overall less optimistic perspective on how companies are faring in transitioning from shareholder primacy toward a more just and equitable economy, our 2022 Issues Report – The People’s Priorities and full slate of polling reports from the last year, provide a clear, consistent, and unified message from Americans about how to turn the tide, and that is to put workers at the heart of business strategy.
For companies that are looking for solutions to everything from political polarization to the rise in unionization, or losing talent to competitors, the answers lie in listening to the voice of the public, and most importantly, to your workers. They will tell you, as they’ve told us for the last seven years, to focus on paying a fair, living wage, protecting their health and safety, supporting their development through training and upward mobility, providing good benefits and work-life balance, and more. The pandemic catalyzed a fundamental shift in expectations for workers, with many reevaluating what’s most important to them.
As we discussed in a recent Fortune editorial with the Ford Foundation, “Now is the time for employers to listen to their workforce and collectively ensure our economy delivers on the promise of the American Dream for everyone.” Business leaders are increasingly faced with complex economic, social, and political headwinds, but investing in workers is a powerful North Star to use to chart the path forward.
For additional resources on where to get started, visit:
We conducted this survey online with a probability-based sample attained through the exhaustive statistical sampling methods employed by SSRS. The SSRS Opinion Panel is a nationally representative probability-based web panel, and findings are generalizable to the general adult population.
The full survey was conducted from June 22 to July 11, 2022 among a general population sample of 3,002 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults 18+ years of age, with an oversample of 540 Hispanic and 460 non-Hispanic Black respondents. Panelists were sent an email invitation to take the survey online as well as up to eight reminder emails throughout the field period. The survey program was optimized so that respondents could complete it using a desktop or laptop computer as well as a mobile device. In total, 1,063 respondents completed the survey on a computer and 1,939 completed it on a mobile device.
The margin of error is +/- 2.2% at the 95% confidence level. Results were weighted to U.S. Census parameters for age, gender, education, race/Hispanic ethnicity, and Census Division to ensure representativeness of the U.S. population. All margins of error include “design effects” to adjust for the effects of weighting.
September 15, 2022
JUST Capital’s 2022 Issues Report – The People’s Priorities is by Jennifer Tonti, Managing Director, Survey Research & Insights.
The current economic environment is a marked difference from the one rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession in 2020, and the “restart” we began to see in 2021. This year, ongoing pandemic-related supply shocks and repercussions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have helped to spark the highest inflation in decades. Soaring costs and economic uncertainty about a recession are impacting the national mood. And Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell recently warned Americans that the Fed’s plans to continue rate hikes to slow inflation will “also bring some pain to households and businesses.” Economic inequality that was exacerbated by the pandemic could widen further in a sharper slowdown, understanding low-wage workers are often the first to lose hours and jobs.
It’s to be expected that the social, economic, and political disruptions at any moment will have some bearing on Americans’ attitudes and values during that time. In every year that we’ve been measuring which issues matter most to the public when it comes to just business behavior (what we call The People’s Priorities), the events of that year can determine which issues Americans deem more important than others, as well as the degree to which the public prioritizes each issue.
This year, the resounding refrain from the public is that America’s largest companies should put workers squarely at the heart of just business practices, foremost by paying their workers a fair and living wage.
Over the last six years, Worker Issues have consistently commanded the highest share of priority among the 20 stakeholder-related issues we measure, and this year is no different. Four of the five Worker Issues we track – including paying a fair, living wage; protecting worker health and safety; providing benefits and work-life balance; and investing in workforce training – are among the top six priorities of the public, and the collective prioritization of all five worker issues will comprise 44% of a company’s score in our Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies.
What is more, despite increasing media attention and political rhetoric that the country is incredibly polarized, we are not divided as a country when it comes to just business behavior. There is broad consensus across all demographic and political cohorts that Workers should be corporate America’s top priority – something we also found in our recent survey on Workers & Wages. Specifically, among every demographic group – liberal, conservative, high-income, low-income, men, women, young generations, older generations, and white, Black, and Hispanic Americans – the Workers stakeholder is the top priority. And for every one of these demographic groups, the most important Issue is “Pays workers fairly and offers a living wage that covers the cost of basic needs at the local level.”
Every year we begin our annual Rankings process by facilitating a series of group conversations with a diverse mix of Americans across the U.S., to help us broadly understand the business behaviors and actions that they consider to be most “just.” These focus groups enable our research team to hear the unvarnished voice of the public speak to what issues matter most, and whether their opinions have changed over time. The polling team then distills the focus groups’ major themes into statements that capture these concepts, which we call “Issues.” In 2022, this work yielded 20 Issues, which is consistent with the number of Issues last year.
Since the public initially tells us that all of these Issues are of high importance, we then conduct a choice modeling exercise as part of our Annual Survey work, allowing us to derive the relative importance of these 20 Issues. From here, we extract a “weight” per Issue that we use as the foundation for our Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies. The weights below reflect the probability that an individual would choose that Issue as most important to defining a just company, based on a representative sample of 3,002 Americans. These weights power our analysis of corporate stakeholder performance at the country’s largest companies, including JUST’s annual Rankings.
Each issue is color-coded by the stakeholder it most impacts. While we reference the prioritization of several Issues in this report, please note that the relative importance between many of these Issues often varies by a fraction of a percentage point.
Below we take a deeper look at these Issues, and focus on a few that have made substantial movement up or down in relative importance this year.
The above chart shows that four of the five worker Issues are among the top six overall. Most notably, “Pays workers fairly and offers a living wage that covers the cost of basic needs at the local level” is the top-most prioritized Issue for the third consecutive year, and will comprise a significant 21% of companies’ scores in our 2023 Rankings. This is a nearly six percentage point increase from last year, with three-quarters of Americans saying that this Issue is “more important” (including 50% saying it is “much more” important) than last year. And as we mentioned above, among each of our key demographic groups, this is consistently the top-prioritized Issue.
The current economic climate has undoubtedly impacted the public’s priorities. Findings from our partners at The Harris Poll show that 83% of Americans say their top concerns include the economy, inflation, and jobs. And despite the July U.S. job rate reaching pre-pandemic highs, eight in 10 Americans remain concerned about America entering a recession. Maintaining a stable job with a wage that enables a family to make ends meet each month is crucial staying afloat in today’s uncertain economy.
It is doubly important that wages rise in step with inflation. A recent JUST Capital poll shows that 87% of Americans say large U.S. companies have a responsibility to regularly increase wages to keep up with the rapidly rising cost of living. Large majorities of Americans also think that companies that pay a living wage are better for their workers, more competitive in their industry, and better for the U.S. economy overall. Unfortunately, this is more of an aspiration than a reality for workers in our economy today. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month, average weekly earnings may have risen 4.2% from June 2021 to June 2022, but real weekly earnings decreased 4.4% in that same time period.
This Issue also captures the concept of fair pay, which both ensures fairness of pay between peers as well as equal pay for equal work across gender, race, ethnicity, etc. Even in 2022, women continue to struggle to be paid at parity with their male colleagues – in 2022, women are paid 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, with even wider pay gaps for women of color, including Black, Hispanic, and American Indian women who earn 79, 78, and 71 cents to the dollar, respectively. Equitable pay – across gender and race/ethnicity – is a critical element in better, fairer treatment for companies’ most valuable assets: their workers.
In 2022, “Protects the health, safety, and well-being of workers beyond what is required by law” comprises 7.3% of a company’s score in our Rankings, showing that even two years from the height of the pandemic, protecting worker health and safety continues to be critical to the public. What’s more, two-thirds of Americans say that this Issue is more important this year than last.
Upward mobility for workers is an additional area of focus for Americans in an unsettled labor market. McKinsey finds that career advancement is the main reason people continue to leave jobs during the Great Reassessment. As such, “Focuses on workforce retention and employee advancement by providing training, education, and career development opportunities” has moved up five places, and comprises 7.1% of a company’s score in our Rankings.
Finally, “Offers a quality benefits package and supports good work-life balance for all employees” comprises 6.2% of a company’s score, a level unchanged from the previous year. As we saw in our August 2022 survey on workers and wages, majorities of Americans believe companies have a responsibility to provide quality, affordable health insurance to all adult workers, including part-time workers (84%) and match employee contributions to retirement savings plans (74%). And in our April 2022 survey focused on how companies support women in the workplace, 64% of respondents said it was important for companies to provide all workers at least 12 weeks of paid parental leave to promote equity at work.
There is a very clear business case for corporate leaders to focus on worker issues. Investments in good jobs can reduce the high costs incurred from absenteeism and turnover, increase a company’s labor productivity, and ultimately grow its revenue. Companies can also gain a competitive advantage as their corporate reputation attracts values-aligned job seekers, customers, and ESG investors. To help companies assess, measure, and improve performance on the worker issues that matter most to the public, we’re proud to announce the creation of a new JUST Jobs Program.
One Issue that falls under the Communities stakeholder, “Creates jobs in the U.S. and provides employment opportunities for communities that need them,” is once again #2 in relative importance, comprising 11.1% of a company’s score in our Rankings. 60% of respondents say that creating jobs in the U.S. is more important than last year.
Ethical leadership, an issue that falls under Shareholders & Governance, continues to be of high importance to Americans as well. “Compels leadership to act ethically and with integrity and to avoid wrongdoings” comprises 7.6% of a company’s score, and is the third most important Issue in 2022. Earlier in the year, our focus group participants told us that they are paying attention to how leadership acts – or doesn’t act – on important societal issues. Our polling confirms that Americans want corporate leaders to take ownership when companies make mistakes or become embroiled in a crisis or controversy. Action is perceived as good faith. Failure to own up to mistakes results in reputational damage.
The Environment stakeholder has grown to encompass 12% of the model. Americans told us that Minimizing pollution (up five places to become the eighth most important Issue) and Combating climate change (up two places to the 13th most important issue) are higher priorities for Americans in 2022, helping to propel the Environment stakeholder’s importance in our Rankings this year.
A need for increased transparency and disclosure from companies has been a key, recurring theme we heard in focus groups. This year, the refrain was louder than ever. As such, we modified the language in this Issue to broaden the focus to be more inclusive, and in turn, the Issue “Is transparent in communications with customers about its products, services, and operations” has moved up four places to become the 12th most important to Americans.
Another notable change is the “Cultivates a diverse and inclusive workplace with equal opportunity” Issue, which fell in priority from seventh most important in 2021 to 15th in 2022. Make no mistake: our polling shows that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion continues to be an important element of just business behavior, with 92% saying that it is important for companies to promote racial equity in the workplace, and 77% saying that racial equity cannot be achieved until all workers are paid a living wage. What is more, half of respondents say this Issue is more important than last year.
One possible explanation for this decline is that we are two years removed from the racial justice movement our nation rose to in response to George Floyd’s death. And with economic matters such as inflation and recession closer to home for many Americans, when it comes time to prioritizing this issue over others, its relative importance falls.
The Priorities of the Public are based on responses from more than 3,000 U.S. adults and are representative of a cross-section of Americans. This means we hear from a variety of voices, both by demographic such as race/ethnicity, gender, income levels, and age, as well as behavior such as political ideologies or active investors. Remarkably, we found that there is substantial consistency in the Issues most important to these groups, with nearly all cohorts prioritizing the same top three: Pays a fair, living wage; Creates jobs in the U.S.; and Acts ethically at the leadership level.
With a few exceptions, each demographic is fairly unified in how they want corporate America to prioritize the top five Issues, demonstrating remarkable unity and consistency in a year when companies are increasingly under scrutiny from politicians and pundits for “being out of touch with the values of everyday Americans” or that stakeholder-focused capitalism is not “a reflection of consumer demand.”
To provide further clarity around how to better balance stakeholder interests, we classify each Issue by the stakeholder it affects most, organizing the 20 Issues into five stakeholder groups: Workers, Customers, Communities, the Environment, and Shareholders & Governance.
Specifically, we assign each of the 20 Issues to the one (and only one) stakeholder it most impacts. For example: “Compels leadership to act ethically and with integrity and avoid wrongdoings” is assigned to Shareholders & Governance, whereas “Makes products or offers services that benefit society” is assigned to the Customers stakeholder. The weight of each stakeholder group is calculated by summing all of its associated Issue weights.
For the sixth consecutive year, the American public prioritizes Workers as the most important stakeholder by a significant margin. The Workers stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it invests in its employees, including (1) paying a fair, living wage, (2) protecting worker health and safety, (3) providing benefits and work-life balance, (4) cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and (5) supporting workforce retention, advancement, and training.
The Communities stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it supports its communities, including (1) creating jobs in the U.S., (2) addressing human rights issues in the supply chain, (3) contributing to community development, and (4) giving back to local communities.
The Customers stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it treats its customers, including (1) protecting customer privacy, (2) treating customers fairly, (3) communicating transparently, and (4) making beneficial products.
In 2021 we added “Governance” to the Shareholders stakeholder be more representative of the Issues included in this grouping that explore how a company maintains good governance and delivers value to its shareholders by (1) acting ethically at the leadership level, (2) generating returns for investors, and (3) prioritizing accountability to all stakeholders.
The Environment stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it reduces its environmental impact, including (1) minimizing pollution, (2) using sustainable materials, (3) combating climate change, and (4) using resources efficiently.
When looking at stakeholder prioritization across demographic groupings, we see significant alignment, with some specific areas of variance. For instance, Issues relating to the Environment are prioritized more highly among respondents under age 30 and Democrats, whereas Shareholders & Governance Issues are prioritized more highly by those age 65 and older.
There has never been a more urgent moment for corporate America to embark on the journey to becoming more just, and we hope this latest survey report provides clear guidance on how companies can reevaluate their priorities and better align their practices with the values of the American people. The data shines a clear, bright light on the specific actions businesses can take today to rebuild trust in business and markets as a force for good.
Since its inception, JUST Capital’s mission has been to build an economy that works for all Americans by helping companies improve how they serve all their stakeholders: workers, customers, communities, the environment, and shareholders. The goal is to encourage and incentivize real change in corporate America’s leadership.
At the core of our work is a robust research program that starts with focus groups in which we ask the American public to identify the policies, practices, and behaviors companies should prioritize to be considered just, (which we call “Issues”). These Issues include fair pay and living wage; a more diverse and inclusive workplace; stronger, healthier communities; good jobs; a cleaner environment; and more. Then, based on sophisticated polling of a representative sample of Americans, we estimate the relative importance of these behaviors – in other words, how important to defining a just company each behavior is relative to others.
Since 2015, JUST Capital has surveyed more than 160,000 Americans – representative of the U.S. adult population – asking them to define just business behavior. For the past two years, we have partnered with SSRS, an objective, non-partisan research institution that provides scientifically rigorous statistical surveys of the U.S. population, to survey more than 3,000 Americans on their perspectives.
Before answering questions about the just behavior of large companies, it is important for respondents to have a clear definition of the concept. Below is the definition we provided to our focus group and survey respondents in 2022: A just company operates in a way that serves its workers, customers, shareholders, the environment, and the communities it affects, even if it comes at a cost.
We conducted the 20 question survey online with a probability-based sample attained through the exhaustive statistical sampling methods employed by SSRS. The SSRS Opinion Panel is a nationally representative probability-based web panel, and findings are generalizable to the general adult population.
The full survey was conducted from June 22 to July 11, 2022 among a general population sample of 3,002 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults 18+ years of age, with an oversample of 540 Hispanic and 460 non-Hispanic Black respondents. Panelists were sent an email invitation to take the survey online as well as up to eight reminder emails throughout the field period. The survey program was optimized so that respondents could complete it using a desktop or laptop computer as well as a mobile device. In total, 1,063 completed the survey on a computer and 1,939 completed on a mobile device.
The margin of error is +/- 2.2% at the 95% confidence level. Results were weighted to U.S. Census parameters for age, gender, education, race/Hispanic ethnicity, and Census Division to ensure representativeness of the U.S. population. All margins of error include “design effects” to adjust for the effects of weighting.
To identify the priorities of the public, we calculate for each Issue the probability that an individual would choose that as most important to defining a just company. As such, there are 20 probabilities calculated from the 20 Issues. These probabilities can be referred to as weights as each represents the relative importance of one Issue versus another. To illustrate more explicitly, the Issue “Creates jobs in the U.S.” was assigned a weight of 11.1% as there is a 1.11 in 10 chance that a respondent chosen at random will identify this Issue as most important in defining a just company. By comparison, the weight assigned to “Generates returns for investors over the long term” has a 2.2% weight.
Our full body of survey work for 2022 also includes six focus groups conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll and eight additional surveys fielded throughout the year. To learn more about how this survey data drives JUST Capital’s analysis and Rankings of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies, visit the Methodology section of our website.
With inflation in the United States at 9.1% in June, the highest level since November of 1981, it would seem counterintuitive to invest in wages right now – but that’s exactly what some companies are doing. And, when looking at our latest polling and historical data, it’s not only a popular decision, but a savvy one.
As we approach the end of summer, we’re in a particularly interesting economic moment. Economists, investors, and analysts are hotly debating whether or not we’re on the brink of a recession or even already in one, and the tech industry has generally taken a significant hit. For the average American family, high gas and grocery prices are stretching paychecks. But we’re also seeing Americans continue to benefit from a very tight labor market and leverage their influence over current or existing employers. With all of this in play, it can be confusing to get an assessment of how Americans are experiencing it.
We turned to our Survey Research team to get an idea. Due to the timeliness of the data, we’re previewing here our upcoming intensive polling report on worker issues in America. Drawing from a diverse pool of Americans, we found in June that large majorities are looking to corporations to meet the challenge of inflation through investments in their workforces.
What Americans are expecting from the country’s largest corporations
The survey found that 87% of Americans say large U.S. companies have a responsibility to regularly increase wages to keep up with the rapidly rising cost of living, and 84% believe companies have a responsibility to pay full-time adult workers in frontline jobs enough to make ends meet.
Digging deeper, we had respondents compare two hypothetical companies – one that increases wages above the rising cost of living, and another that increases wages but at a rate that is less than the cost of living. The company that provides the real raise in wages was rated by vast majorities of Americans to be:
Taking this into consideration, it’s important to recognize the difference between nominal wage increases, those that are unadjusted for inflation, and real wage increases, those that are. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month, average weekly earnings may have risen 4.2% from June 2021 to June 2022, but real weekly earnings decreased 4.4% in that same time period.
Two recent examples can show how this plays out. In May, Bank of America announced that it was raising its minimum hourly wage to $22 from the $21 hourly wage it had previously announced in October 2021. For hourly workers, wages increased by 4.8%, but when adjusted for inflation, there was a real wage loss of 0.9%. Back in March, Santander Consumer USA Holdings also raised its minimum hourly wage, for a 16% increase to $20. Adjusted for inflation, this was roughly a real wage increase of 6%, meaning Santander lifted wages beyond the level of inflation.
How companies are already responding
With the debate continuing over the contribution wage increases are making to inflation, any wage increase at this moment is still a strong signal to existing and potential employees, from low wage to high wage earners, that the company is invested in them.
Over the past few months, companies like Walmart, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, and T. Rowe Price have raised wages, offered higher bonuses, and increased benefits, with some specifically citing the challenges of inflation.
This approach not only benefits workers who may suddenly find themselves struggling to maintain their cost of living, it’s smart business. There is a wealth of peer-reviewed research over the course of years that has found both that investments in workers’ wages and benefits can lead to higher productivity, and, perhaps even more importantly in this economic moment, while estimates may vary it is commonly understood that the cost of replacing a worker is significantly higher than what it would take to retain them.
As the economic story unfolds JUST Capital will continue to track inflation’s impact on American workers and how large corporations are responding.
