The last two years have required America’s corporations to confront an unrelenting series of large-scale, complex, and interrelated new challenges. Many have done so with aplomb (as our work at JUST Capital has showcased) and with financial indices setting new records, you’d be forgiven for thinking all is well in the world.
For the American worker, however, things aren’t so straightforward. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has led to cases climbing across the country, with businesses temporarily shutting down, companies scrapping or delaying return-to-office plans, schools going remote, and flights being grounded. Supply chain disruptions, inflation, political infighting, ongoing social and cultural division, climate chaos, and, of course, an unprecedented labor market dislocation have all piled on the pressure.
Many workers continue to grapple with staff shortages at their companies. The Department of Labor recently reported that more than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November, yet another record, with hospitality and other low-wage sectors seeing especially high quit rates. These numbers don’t yet reflect the impact of Omicron but, as its effects unfold, workers are clearly at the end of their rope. Their message to companies is clear: Do more!
At JUST Capital, this accords with what we’ve heard from the American public over the last seven years. Since 2015, we’ve been asking Americans to identify what issues matter most when it comes to just business behavior. Their responses form the basis of our annual Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies, with our 2022 edition to be released next week with our partner, CNBC.
Each and every year the Americans we poll have been consistently united across demographics – liberal and conservative, high-income and low-income, men and women, millennials and boomers – in wanting companies to put workers first.
This is the case once again. As companies battle through what you might call the “Great Reset,” and with seemingly no end in sight to the pandemic and its economic and political ramifications, the good news is that the American public stands firm and united on what they believe companies should prioritize.
In our latest Issues Report, the foundation of our annual Rankings weighting, Americans chose “Pays a fair, living wage” as the year’s most important Issue, representing over 15% of our model for scoring companies’ stakeholder performance. This is followed by “Creates jobs in the U.S.,” making up 13% of our scoring model. This Issue rose from the number eight spot in last year’s report, reflecting the hemorrhaging of jobs from the U.S. economy in the early stages of the pandemic – and, now, a reconsideration of what jobs workers are willing to take. Rounding out the top three Issues is “Prioritizes accountability to all stakeholders,” which comprises over 10% of companies’ scores and is up from the number 11 spot in last year’s report.
This jump in importance for accountability aligns with findings from our latest annual survey results, which hint at a growing frustration among the public with corporate America’s perceived lack of action.
Only 49% of those we polled believe companies are having a positive impact on society. Respondents were also more than twice as likely to believe that companies are having a positive impact on their shareholders (78%) than on the financial well-being of their lowest-paid workers (36%). Just 22% said they believe business is heading in the right direction.
Americans appear to be losing patience with corporations’ willingness to act on their priorities. For example, to attract workers in a tight labor market, many employers have raised starting wages, but it remains unclear if recent wage hikes are part of a larger investment in long-term worker financial security – what JUST polling has shown Americans are looking for from companies – or merely short-term expediencies.
Companies participating in our Worker Financial Wellness Initiative – including Chipotle, PayPal, Prudential, and Verizon – are showing what this long-term leadership looks like through holistic assessments of workers’ financial security, and continuous peer-to-peer learning. At the same time, the concept of a “JUST Job” is emerging: One that allows for not only financial security for workers, but for opportunity, training and advancement; that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion as core tenets; and that allows workers to protect their own health and safety and that of their families.
Underpinning all of this is trust and accountability. It should be no surprise that holding executives accountable to the interests of all company stakeholders finished so high on the list of priorities. Of the Americans we surveyed this year, 84% agreed that companies “often hide behind public declarations of support for stakeholders but don’t walk the walk.” Greater transparency and disclosure can help here. For example, if raising wages is the company’s stated priority, then sharing more information on the current company minimum wage and how it relates to local living wages will help. If prioritizing retention is the goal, companies should disclose more on internal promotion rates. Sharing information like this is an important part of the trust-building process.
At the end of the day, it’s only by showing genuine progress on the issues that matter that companies can build and maintain trust. We know what those issues are, and we know what leadership looks like. With financial markets hitting all-time highs, the onus is now on corporate America to act.
With our 2022 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies, we’ll be highlighting the country’s largest employers that are taking action on these issues. Join us next week to learn how those that are leading the way are helping shape a new definition of corporate success and, ultimately, forge new trust with their stakeholders.
Just Capital’s 2021 Issues Report: The People’s Priorities is by Jennifer Tonti, Managing Director, Survey Research & Insights.
As the country struggles to emerge from the pandemic, corporate America continues to face a reckoning with labor policies and practices.
Month over month, the American workforce is seeing record-setting rates of quitting. The latest jobs report from the Department of Labor shows 4.4 million workers left their roles in September, with low-wage workers, employees of color, and women in non-management roles making up a disproportionate amount of those leaving. At the same time, workers across different industries are striking or staging walkouts to make their voices heard. The country is in a moment that’s been deemed The Great Resignation and The Great Reassessment, representing a shifting balance of power between workers and employers.
For corporate leaders, it’s never been more urgent to align their actions with the public’s priorities to meet shifting expectations accelerated by the pandemic. Each year, we ask the American public to identify what Issues matter most when it comes to just business behavior. Those Issues, The People’s Priorities, become the foundation for how we track, analyze, and incentivize corporate behavior change, including our Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies.
The Issues at the core of our ongoing survey research consistently provide a data-driven roadmap for what corporate leaders should prioritize. And this year we’re seeing the price of inaction. What some might have considered latent sources of market risk – human capital management, diversity and inclusion, climate change – have now become core strategic concerns for corporate leaders. And they have a once in a generation opportunity to shift mindsets and ways of working to meet this moment and create a more just, equitable, and resilient future for us all.
It’s critical to note that despite being incredibly polarized in many respects, the American public – liberal, conservative, high-income, low-income, men, women, young generations, and older generations – has been unified in what it wants from corporate America over the six years we’ve conducted this survey, and that is for companies to put workers at the heart of just business practices. This year is no different. All five Worker Issues – including paying a fair, living wage, protecting worker health and safety, providing benefits and work-life balance, investing in workforce training, and cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace – are among the top 10 priorities of the public, as they were last year as well.
Below we showcase the key Issues that rose to prominence in 2021 to provide corporate leaders with clear direction for where they should focus their efforts to make their companies more just and stave off emerging challenges from The Great Resignation.
This year, our survey research yielded 20 priorities for just business behavior, or Issues. The percentages 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 3,000 Americans. These probabilities can be referred to as “weights” in that they represent the relative importance of one Issue versus another. We also looked at the data across a selection of demographic breaks – race and ethnicity, political ideology, younger and older generations, low-wage workers, and active investors – and found that there is remarkable consistency in how each perceive Issues the most important to them, with nearly all prioritizing the same top three: Pays a Fair, Living Wage; Creates Jobs in the U.S.; and Prioritizes Accountability to all Stakeholders.
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 look at several key Issues that either rose to the top or moved up significantly in 2021.
“Pays workers fairly and offers a living wage that covers the cost of basic needs at the local level.”
This Issue has consistently remained one of the top three since Just Capital began polling the public in 2015, and gained nearly six percentage points from last year. That three-quarters of Americans said that this Issue is more important this year than last is no surprise: Workers – particularly those in lower-wage sectors such as retail and hospitality – are walking off jobs at a record rate, often citing insufficient pay, as a primary driver.
Our omnibus polling fielded in July underscores the importance of fair pay to the American public: More than half of respondents (55%) said that in order to compete for workers in a challenging labor market, large companies should prioritize offering higher starting wages to hourly workers. A majority also indicated that higher starting wages (66%) and more comprehensive benefits (76%) should be long-term policy changes, rather than short-term hiring solutions.
“Creates jobs in the U.S. and provides employment opportunities for communities that need them.”
This Issue rises to #2 in relative importance, up from #8 in 2020, and more than two-thirds say that creating jobs in the U.S. is more important than last year. The sharp focus on jobs makes sense considering the country lost over 20 million jobs in the early days of the coronavirus crisis. And despite the fact that the U.S. economy has reportedly recovered 80% of those jobs, there are still four million fewer jobs than there were before the pandemic.
Myriad surveys and reports show that frontline workers in particular are seeking higher quality jobs, especially in communities that have limited employment opportunities. From our 2021 Americans’ Views on Business Survey, the percentage of Americans who say companies have a positive impact on the quality of U.S. jobs has fallen almost 20 percentage points – from 65% in 2018 to 48% in 2021, demonstrating that the public wants companies to focus on creating good quality jobs for American workers to regain trust.
“The board of directors holds executives accountable to the interests of its workers, customers, communities, and the environment, as well as shareholders.”
In 2021 this Issue more than doubles in priority, from 4.2% to 10.6%, and moves to #3 from #11. This is due in part to our refinement of the wording of the Issue this year to reflect prioritization of leadership accountability to stakeholders, beyond creating value for them. In our focus groups this year, we heard loud and clear that we’ve entered a new era of accountability where people want to make sure companies have moved beyond talking the talk and are walking the walk. In our polling from summer 2020, nearly nine in 10 Americans agreed that the COVID-19 crisis provided an opportunity for large companies to hit “reset” and focus on doing right by their stakeholders.
More recent polling shows companies are not moving quite fast enough. In our 2021 Americans’ Views on Business Survey, 84% of Americans agreed that companies “often hide behind public declarations of support for stakeholders but don’t walk the walk.” Americans want companies to follow through on their stakeholder commitments and to be held accountable for prioritizing them.
“Protects the health, safety, and well-being of workers beyond what is required by law.”
The pandemic amplified the need for companies to enact measures to safeguard the health and safety of their workforces; in particular, those deemed essential and/or serving on frontlines, such as healthcare, retail, and factory workers. In 2021, this Issue continues to be critical to the public – with Protecting Worker Health & Safety moving up two places to the fourth most important issue. What’s more, close to 70% of Americans say that this Issue is more important this year than last.
Yet, as the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 outbreak draws near, the care and attention that companies paid workers during the height of the pandemic seems to be waning – especially for frontline workers who continue to fear for their health and/or face belligerent customers. Findings from our research fielded in March found that there remains serious disagreement between workers and employers about the state of workplace safety. Workers reported experiencing lower levels of health and safety protections than employers reported providing, and were nearly twice as likely (37%) as employers (19%) to report that their health and safety often takes a back seat to profits. The arrival of the Omicron variant demonstrates how important this Issue will continue to be for employers in 2022 and beyond.
“Leadership acts ethically and with integrity and avoids wrongdoings.”
Ethical Leadership rounds out the top five most important Issues this year. Last year, four in five Americans agreed the pandemic had exposed underlying structural problems in our society and opened their eyes to acceptable and unacceptable corporate behavior. They have become more attuned to what behaviors are right and wrong, and the public wants corporate leaders to take ownership when companies make mistakes, cause a crisis, or become embroiled in a controversy.
Our 2021 Views on Business Survey results show Americans are looking to leaders to get things on track: Currently only 22% say companies are headed in the right direction, versus 47% who say companies are headed in the wrong direction, and another 31% who say they don’t know.
“Offers a quality benefits package and supports good work-life balance for all employees.”
While this Issue has consistently ranked in the top 10 priorities year over year, the pandemic significantly changed how people think about the balance between life and work. The components that comprise this Issue – from health insurance to paid time off, paid sick leave, and paid parental leave, as well as remote work and child care – have been driving questions at the heart of the Great Reassessment. One prime example: The pandemic has sparked a child care crisis in our country. With kids schooled at home for the majority of this year and last, the pandemic accentuated the need for quality, affordable caregiving opportunities for working parents – and how the lack thereof has ripple effects across the workforce, particularly for working mothers.
Our August survey on caregiving showed that 41% of respondents had either personally experienced or know someone close to them who has missed work to provide child care for their families, and 36% said either they have, or they know someone who has left a job or switched to part-time work. Companies that listen to their workers and develop benefit offerings that meet their evolving needs will be better poised to win the race for talent as the tight labor market continues into 2022.
“Cultivates a diverse and inclusive workplace with equal opportunity and pay without discrimination.”
The issues of diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) continue to be at the forefront of the minds of Americans when it comes to just business behavior. More than half (54%) of respondents say this Issue is more important than last year. Further, our Views on Business analysis shows that a majority (61%) agrees that companies are indeed making progress advancing DEI in the workplace.
Our November survey of employers and workers in large companies shows that, a year into our nation’s reckoning with racial injustice, most employers (94%) and workers (74%) say that their organization has made a commitment to advancing DEI in the workplace. However, there is also notable divergence in the two groups’ perspectives on how far their companies have come, suggesting that increased accountability and action is still needed. Leaders should more actively seek out feedback from underrepresented groups to deepen and broaden the work.
“Reduces the environmental impact of its products and services by using sustainable materials and renewable energy.”
Although environmental issues comprise just 10% of our ranking model, a significant share of that number belongs to the sustainable products Issue, which has moved up six places to number eight in overall importance, from 14. In 2020, 38% said this Issue is more important than the previous year. In 2021 that percentage grew to 53%, demonstrating the public’s growing interest in supporting renewable energy, low-carbon technology, products made from recyclable/recycled materials, and more.
In our Climate Week poll from September, roughly three-quarters of Americans said that companies that take the following steps can have a moderate-to-high impact on climate change: making changes to ensure all aspects of their business are environmentally sustainable (75%); using environmentally friendly materials (74%); and oil and gas companies leading the transition to clean energy and end fossil fuel production (73%).
A commitment to stakeholder capitalism represents a new North Star for business leaders today.
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: “Leadership acts ethically and with integrity and avoids 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, Workers are prioritized as the most important stakeholder by a significant margin, with five underlying Issues among the top ten overall priorities of the public. 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) investing in workforce 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) respecting human rights in the supply chain, (3) contributing to community development, and (4) giving back to local communities.
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) prioritizing accountability to all stakeholders, (2) acting ethically at the leadership level, and (3) generating returns for investors.
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.
The Environment stakeholder considers a company’s performance on factors related to how it reduces its environmental impact, including (1) developing and supporting sustainable products, (2) minimizing pollution, (3) helping combat climate change, and (4) using resources efficiently.
The path forward is clear. Americans want to see companies shift from a focus on shareholders toward supporting all the stakeholders impacted by their business: including their workers, customers, communities, and the environment, as well as their shareholders. The pandemic accelerated the need for this shift, and the Great Reassessment is showing that progress is not happening fast enough for the majority of Americans.
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 – how important for defining a just company each behavior is relative to others.
Since 2015, Just Capital has surveyed more than 150,000 Americans – representative of the U.S. adult population – asking them to define just business behavior. For the core of this year’s survey, we turned to SSRS, an objective, non-partisan research institution that provides scientifically rigorous statistical surveys of the U.S. population to engage 3,000 Americans who reflect a cross section of America. We captured perspectives across generational and ideological divides, varying income and education levels, race, gender, and more.
Before answering questions about the just behavior of large companies, it was important to first define the concept. Below is the definition we had provided our focus group and survey respondents: 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 July 28 to August 10, 2021 among a general population sample of 3,000 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults 18+ years of age, with an oversample of 507 Hispanic and 461 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, 1,230 completed the survey on a computer and 1,770 completed on a mobile device.
The margin of error is +/- 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 it is the relative importance of one Issue versus another. To illustrate more explicitly, the Issue “Prioritizes accountability to all stakeholders” was assigned a weight of 10.6% as there is a roughly one 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 “Contributes to community development and uses local products and resources where possible” has a 2.2% weight.
Our full body of survey work for 2021 also includes six focus groups conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll and 10 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.
Every November 11, our nation pays tribute to military veterans who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. At Just, we want to honor the moment by taking stock of how the public views corporate America’s responsibility to veterans, and by analyzing how companies are currently performing when it comes to supporting the American veteran workforce. Our findings show the ways in which the public believes corporate America can best support this cohort and in turn, contribute to creating a more just and equitable economy that supports all Americans
Just Capital, in collaboration with our research partners at The Harris Poll, surveyed active duty military and veterans, their family members, and the wider public. Of the 3,058 respondents, about 13% were active duty or veterans themselves, 31% were immediate family members of veterans or those serving active duty; 24% were extended family members of veterans or those serving active duty; and 50% were neither veterans themselves nor had family who were (respondents could fall into more than one group, therefore percentages do not add to 100%).
Over time, our polling has consistently shown that a strong majority of the public believes that, as corporate leadership is the driving force behind just business behavior, CEOs of large companies have a responsibility toward addressing issues of societal importance. Across a list of issues affecting society, the biggest percentage (87%) of respondents say America’s largest companies have a responsibility to actively recruit veterans to their workforces.
While only 37% of the companies we rank disclose having veteran hiring policies, by and large, respondents say that they would support companies that start new hiring initiatives, and the topmost means of support is purchasing that company’s goods & services or recommending them to friends and family. Those who are veterans themselves or are family of veterans say they would support these companies to a much greater degree (61% would recommend a company, 53% would purchase from that company) than non-veterans (44% would recommend, 36% would purchase).
Looking at the responses to this question across different age brackets, there are generational gradients on recommending and purchasing. Respondents ages 45+ are more apt to recommend or purchase from a company that has announced a veterans hiring initiative, while applicants age 44 and below are more apt to apply for a job at the company or post about the company on social media.
We also see that one in three millennials (age 35-44) say they would invest in a company that started a hiring program, the highest percentage across all generational splits, and about twice that of older Americans (13% among Age 55+). Millennials are a generational segment who are primed to invest and are at a point in their lives in which they may have the means to do so by a more significant margin than older or younger generations.
We then asked respondents about their opinions on the myriad ways that companies can support veterans. About one in three (32%) say that recruiting and hiring more veterans to the workforce is the primary way companies can help, with more veteran respondents (39%) choosing this option than non-veterans (26%). Another way in which companies can support veterans is by developing training, skills, and mentorship programs for their workers (29%) and creating a more inclusive culture (22%), with similar percentages across respondent status choosing these two options. Those who are neither veterans nor have vets in their families are most likely to be unsure about the matter.
There appears to be some differences in opinion on the key way companies can help veterans when we look at results across age cohorts. Younger respondents (age 18-34), are significantly more likely to choose “create an inclusive workplace culture such as dedicated employee resource groups and education and sensitivity training for management and staff” than older respondents, who are more supportive of hiring more veterans for open jobs, by a factor of almost two to one over the younger generation.
Although veteran recruiting is also a key issue, the reality is that veterans face lower unemployment than others. The unemployment rate for veterans has been consistently lower than nonveterans since the early aughts. In 2020, the unemployment rate for veterans was 6.5%, while for nonveterans it was 8.0%.
Issues of veterans’ employment are somewhat deceptive – underemployment is more likely to be a key struggle within this group, with around 12% of veterans underemployed and about 34% more likely to be underemployed than non-veterans. Veterans in the workforce may not be engaged to the full extent of their abilities, resulting in difficulty both finding and landing jobs that closely match training and skills honed during their military experience.
There is public awareness that underemployment is an issue. When asked how much employers are doing to help veteran workers achieve their full potential in the civilian workplace, a majority (57%) say most companies are “not doing enough,” and more veterans (62%) than non-veterans (54%) say employers aren’t doing enough.
Providing more inclusive support to veteran employees is an issue both in the workplace and in a company’s surrounding community. America’s largest companies have aways to go to align with the public’s priorities and develop programs to address not just unemployment but underemployment – and in our companion analysis, we see that these efforts also pay off in the market. As we mark Veterans Day this year, we are reminded that corporate leaders play a key role in supporting American veterans, and that the public at large is eager to support the companies that make these efforts a priority.
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll in partnership with Just Capital from October 25–27, 2021 among 3,058 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The survey is not based on a probability sample, is not representative, and therefore no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact Jennifer Tonti, Managing Director, Surveys & Polling at jtonti@justcapital.com.
Just Capital’s 2021 Americans’ Views on Business Survey is by Jennifer Tonti, Managing Director, Survey Research & Insights.
As we continue to move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves in the midst of an economic sea change – in one of the tightest labor markets in history despite millions of Americans still out of work. In August alone, an unprecedented 2.9% of the entire workforce, some 4.3 million people, quit their jobs as part of the labor market reckoning dubbed The Great Resignation. And American workers rose up during “Striketober” to demand better working conditions and higher pay.
It remains to be seen what the long-term impacts of these shifts will be – and whether this is a temporary blip for our economy or a greater shift in how people think about the role of business in society. In this year’s Survey of Americans’ Views on Business, we’ve turned to the public once again to ask them how they think corporate America is doing today – and provide a lookback on our findings over the years to see how views have shifted.
Since 2015, Just Capital has surveyed more than 150,000 demographically diverse Americans, asking them what they believe is most important when it comes to just business behavior. Polling the public not only helps us understand what Americans want from corporate leaders today, it provides a data-driven roadmap for how companies can better align their business with the public’s priorities and help address the country’s most pressing societal challenges.
In 2021, many of the positive views we’ve heard from the public from past surveys seem to be reversing course, and Americans increasingly believe that business is heading in the wrong direction, with a decreasing focus on workers in favor of shareholders. But they also believe that corporate leaders can play a critical role in addressing core societal issues – from income inequality (70%) to racial equity (64%) to climate change (56%).
“Organizations should not be creating the world’s problems but actually solving them,” suggested former Unilever CEO and Just Capital Board member Paul Polman in a recent Financial Times interview. Americans agree that companies should aim to do more good by focusing on their stakeholders’ long-term interests and taking responsibility for their impact on the wider world.
Here’s what we learned:
A majority (58%) says that our current form of capitalism is not working for the average American. This finding is supported by 61% who agree “The Coronavirus pandemic has made it clear that America needs a more evolved form of capitalism.” These two findings underscore that, in the eyes of the public, large companies are still operating like business as usual, and the average American is not reaping the benefits promised by the capitalist model.
By the same token, Americans’ trust in business has stagnated. Although Edelman’s Trust Barometer shows that business is the most trusted institution (compared to major institutions such as government and media), our research shows that Americans’ trust in business has plateaued over the last four years, with roughly equal proportions saying they trust companies (48%) as distrust them (47%).
Since 2016, we have asked the public whether they think companies are heading in the right or wrong direction. The optimism we saw emerging in 2018 has started to slowly reverse course; in 2021, just 22% say companies are headed in the right direction (a similar percentage as when we started asking this question five years ago), versus 47% who say companies are headed in the wrong direction. Another 31% say they don’t know if companies are moving in the right or wrong direction, which could be an indication of their mixed feelings about the issue.
In August of 2019, CEOs of the Business Roundtable challenged Milton Friedman’s shareholder primacy doctrine and redefined the purpose of a corporation to promote “an economy that serves all Americans.” All told, today 243 signatories have committed to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders, which includes serving their workers, customers, communities, the environment, and shareholders.
Yet in the two years since that announcement, there is significant skepticism that companies are actually following through on their commitments: 84% agree that companies “often hide behind public declarations of support for stakeholders but don’t walk the walk.”
The following chart shows that the public is less confident that companies are actively demonstrating a positive impact across key stakeholders. For example, the percentage who say companies are having a positive impact on shareholders (78%) is significantly greater than those who say the environment (39%) or the financial well-being of lowest paid workers (36%).
When we look at some of these measures over time, once again we see that 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 2021.
Similarly, the percentage who say companies have a positive impact on the quality of U.S. jobs (65% in 2018) falls almost 20 percentage points (48% in 2021) as does the percentage of those who believe companies are having a positive impact on the well-being of local communities (62% in 2018 to 57% in 2021).
Compare those trends with the percentage of Americans who say companies are positively impacting their shareholders: This number has ticked upwards, from 72% in 2018 to 78% in 2021.
Another question asks for the public’s thoughts about which stakeholder – shareholders, customers, or workers – is the top priority for companies. For each of the last five years and by a significant but varied margin, Americans have said shareholders. Although the percentage had been trending downward, in 2021 that dip has reversed yet again, with just about half (51%) saying shareholders are a company’s top priority. At the same time, the percentage of those who said workers were a company’s top priority – which had reached a high of 37% in 2020 – has fallen to 30% in 2021.
The data reflect that Americans continue to believe that workers are being left behind. Low wages, poor benefits, and the continued strain of health concerns during the pandemic have made working conditions next to impossible for America’s frontline workers, and the public is taking notice. Particularly when the media is paying close attention to the groundswell of workers who, feeling more empowered than ever to fight for better treatment from their employers, are striking, walking-out, or simply resigning.
Revisiting the chart on positive impact for specifically worker-related issues brings the Great Resignation to closer focus. Compare the 78% who say companies have a positive impact on their shareholders to the percentage who say companies have a positive impact on the financial well-being of their lowest-paid workers (36%), and you see that Americans believe companies’ focus on shareholders is greater their focus on their lowest-paid workers by a margin of 2-to-1.
Despite the increasing skepticism we see from the American public, respondents also believe that change is possible – that corporate leaders have a key role to play in addressing the most critical issues of our time and that they’ve done right by their stakeholders through the COVID-19 pandemic and moving through our nation’s reckoning with racial injustice.
The public has consistently maintained that corporate leadership is the driving force behind just business behavior. Although the numbers may vary slightly year over year, the proportion is relatively stable over time: a majority of Americans (63%) believe CEOs of large companies have a responsibility to take a stand on important societal issues.
When we look at views on business across demographic disaggregates, we see a lot of consistency between different groups. CEOs taking a stand on societal issues, however, is one case in which Americans don’t necessarily see eye to eye. Americans who identify as liberal are almost two times as likely as conservatives to say CEOs have a responsibility to take a stand on societal issues (81% liberal vs. 42% conservative).
Of the almost two-thirds who say that CEOs have a responsibility to take a stand, 61% of that group says they should do so no matter the issue, and not necessarily focus on issues that directly impact their business.
In 2021, we asked which societal issues CEOs should address. Among those who say CEOs should take a stand no matter what, 70% strongly agreed that leadership should address income inequality. The other most important issues were racial equity (64%) and climate change (56%).
When asked if business can be a positive force for change, a large majority (84%) agreed. Additionally, people believe that their own actions can shape the future: 86% of Americans say people can be effective when they act together to try to change companies’ behaviors, up 15 percentage points since we first asked this question in 2017.
With regards to just business behavior, we found this year that two-thirds of Americans think most companies are very or somewhat just, up from 60% in 2019.
We also asked Americans whether they think companies are becoming more or less just over time – and although a plurality say that they have stayed about the same, a growing percentage say companies are becoming more just while a decreasing percentage say companies are becoming less just.
Positive assessments of corporate behavior are perhaps informed by the public’s views on how companies have weathered the events of the past two years. More than half (54%) say companies have shown leadership throughout the pandemic, up from 43% in 2020.
Assessments of company leadership making a commitment toward diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace over the past 12 months show similarly positive results, with 61% of Americans saying a majority of companies are making progress advancing DEI.
That Americans have strong opinions about large U.S. companies may be attributable to a significant and growing percentage of the public being informed about corporate activities and behavior (in 2021, 27% say they are Informed or Very Informed, up from 18% in 2020), undoubtedly due to an prodigious amount of media coverage on the topic throughout the pandemic.
For all of corporate America’s positive momentum toward achieving a more just business model, this year’s survey data shows that leadership has more work to do in addressing the needs of all their stakeholders, particularly treatment of their lowest paid workers. Last year, almost nine in 10 Americans said the pandemic was “an opportunity for large companies to hit reset and focus on doing right by their workers, customers, communities, and the environment.” While Americans saw positive gains on some key metrics, there has been some backtracking from those gains in the past 12 months.
If progress is truly to be made toward a more just economy that serves the needs of every American, then corporations must continue to listen and respond to the issues that matter most. Toward that end, Just Capital will be releasing in December the “The People’s Priorities” showcasing which Issues rose to the top in this year’s Annual Survey and the final Issue weights that will underpin our Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies in 2022.
The Americans’ Views on Business survey was conducted in association with SSRS – an objective, non-partisan research institution that provides scientifically rigorous statistical surveys of the U.S. population. Just and SSRS conducted the 20 question survey online with a probability-based sample between July 28 and August 10, 2021 among a general population sample of 3,000 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults 18+ years of age, with an oversample of 507 Hispanic and 461 non-Hispanic Black respondents.
The margin of error is +/- 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.
In August 2019, the Business Roundtable (BRT) – comprising Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from some of the largest U.S. companies – vowed to move away from shareholder primacy in favor of stakeholder capitalism by redefining the purpose of a corporation to promote “an economy that serves all Americans.” The statement was originally signed by 181 CEOs, and as of August 2021 has increased to 243 who have committed to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Two years after the Business Roundtable’s announcement, Just Capital, in collaboration with The Harris Poll, has checked in with Americans on how well they think large U.S. companies have been upholding these principles. Read the full report below for an in-depth exploration of attitudes towards capitalism and the impact of large corporations on stakeholders, and check out some of our key findings here.
With 56% of the population having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 48% of the population fully vaccinated, businesses in the U.S. are accelerating their return to pre-pandemic operations. Yet certain sectors have had a difficult time filling roles, with the lower-wage jobs in the retail and hospitality industries taking an especially hard hit. According to a recent report from the Labor Department, as of June, employment at restaurants and hotels is down by 1.3 million jobs since the pandemic began, and the overall share of U.S. workers leaving jobs at these establishments hit a two-decade high in May.
News reports show corporate leaders lamenting a “labor shortage,” but many experts argue that it is a misalignment between employer and employee expectations. The largest companies in some sectors have figured out that the answer to staffing challenges is relatively simple: pay more and provide better benefits. A recent Wall Street Journal report cited that Chipotle, McDonald’s, and Olive Garden have all announced wage increases this year, and other employers have started to expand benefits, and offer bonuses and other perks. The job market is leaning in favor of workers over employers more now than in the recent past. And we wanted to know Americans’ opinions on what changes companies need to make to attract workers, and whether these changes should be a permanent shift in worker treatment versus a temporary response to the pandemic.
Just Capital, along with our research partner, The Harris Poll, asked a sample of more than 2,000 respondents their opinion about shifting expectations of worker wages; specifically, what companies need to do to incentivize people to come back to work. For context, we reached out to a general sample of U.S. adults and, among this group, roughly one-in-three respondents identify as minimum wage, hourly or gig, contract or temporary worker.
While rolling back unemployment benefits is one way state governments have been trying to get people back in the workforce, there is no hard evidence it’s working – especially in those industries with the most severe staffing shortages, and with a higher amount of low-wage roles.
Overall, low-wage workers make up a sizable chunk of the U.S. workforce, comprising approximately 44% of workers ages 18 to 64, according to a 2019 study by the Brookings Institute. We asked respondents what companies should do to attract workers and fill openings for low-wage work. Their response: offer higher starting wages and good benefits.
Many employers are already recognizing that the solution to attracting employees back to work, while creating a more resilient and inclusive recovery on the other side of the pandemic, is to invest in higher wages and benefits. Whether this is the beginning of a new era of worker bargaining power still remains to be seen, but the American public clearly supports a shift toward good jobs with comprehensive benefits.
As we’ve seen with The Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, the benefits of investing in workers in traditionally low-wage jobs can be substantial including increased engagement, productivity and customer satisfaction, combined with lower turnover costs, which creates a virtual cycle for employees, employers, and shareholders too. Watch PayPal CEO Dan Schulman and Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol discuss the benefits they’ve experienced from investing in their worker’s financial well-being on CNBC Squawk Box or listen to Squawk Box Pod (starting at minute 24:00).
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll in partnership with Just Capital from July 6–8, 2021 among 2,057 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, is not representative, and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Please explore topline survey results here, or for complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact Jennifer Tonti at jtonti@justcapital.com.
