Paul Tudor Jones, Just Capital co-founder and chairman and Tudor Investments founder and CIO, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri join ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss Just Capital’s 2025 list of America’s most ‘Just’ companies, Americans’ top priorities for companies, President Trump’s tariff proposals, impact on the economy and markets, and more. Watch the full video here:
Today, Just Capital, in partnership with CNBC, is proud to announce the Just 100 list as part of the 2025 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies. Each year, JUST Capital begins by polling the American public on a fully representative basis on their priorities for business behavior. It then evaluates how the largest corporations in the country perform against those criteria. Leading companies are recognized for their performance on top priority issues such as: paying fair, living wages; supporting worker well-being; career advancement, training, and work-life balance; treating customers fairly; creating value for shareholders; communicating transparently; strengthening communities; and ethical leadership.
“Hewlett Packard Enterprise is honored to be recognized as #1 by Just Capital in their 2025 Rankings for the second year in a row,” says HPE President & CEO Antonio Neri. “This recognition validates the work we have been doing to understand and serve all our stakeholders in order to drive marketing-leading performance.”
In a year marked by significant geopolitical, cultural, and economic change, business leaders are under pressure with high performance expectations and intense scrutiny. The central message from the public, as detailed in Just Capital’s Americans Views on Business Report and Polling released in 2024, is clear: focus on the basics, do right by your customers, look after your workers, create value for your shareholders, and lead with integrity.
Despite being highly polarized on political issues, Americans are generally united in their expectations for corporations – particularly in areas where positive corporate conduct dovetails with positive business performance – and concerned about kitchen table issues like their economic well-being, how they are treated as consumers, and being able to support their families. Many appear to be distrustful of institutions as they call for increased transparency, corporate accountability, and ethical leadership.
The Just Capital 2025 Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies and Just 100 list celebrate top-performing Russell 1000 companies that are demonstrating leadership in meeting these concerns and responding to the needs of the American people. By tapping into public sentiment, these Rankings offer corporate leaders an objective, empirical roadmap across stakeholder issues that helps businesses navigate a changing socio-political and economic landscape in order to unlock enduring business value.
This promise of value creation is not mere conjecture. As of December 31, 2024 the JULCD (212.2%) – which tracks the top 50% of Russell 1000 companies ranked by Just Capital by industry, and is constructed to match its industry weights – has out-performed Russell 1000 Cap-Weighted Benchmark ( 202.04%) by 10.11% since inception. The Just 100 (116.7%) – which includes the top 100 Russell 1000 companies ranked by Just Capital – has out-performed Russell 1000 Equally Weighted Benchmark (70.8%) by 45.8% since inception.
“Just Capital Rankings stand apart because they measure companies against what matters most: the priorities set by the American public,” says Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “When companies – like those featured in this year’s Rankings – actively deliver on stakeholder expectations, namely those of American workers, consumers, and shareholders, they create enduring business value while advancing solutions to our nation’s most pressing economic challenges. It’s a powerful win-win.”
Today’s corporate leadership demands data-driven insights that align with stakeholder interests and drive lasting value. Just Capital is excited to introduce Just Intelligence – a cutting-edge analytics tool that empowers companies to navigate complex stakeholder issues and fuels their competitive advantage.
This year, all ranked companies will have access to standard Just Intelligence features including an interactive explorer of their performance in the 2025 Rankings and highlights of their highest and lowest performing data points. Just Intelligence subscribers can dive deeper on critical data points, benchmark against peers, and identify best practices of top-performing companies.
“In a rapidly evolving and high-pressure landscape, today’s corporate leaders need a strategic insider to support their competitive edge. Just Intelligence is that strategic insider,” says Whittaker. “We are extremely proud to bring empirical evidence to corporate leaders that allows them to cut through the noise, benchmark their performance, make smarter decisions, and ultimately be more successful in the marketplace.”
As part of its 2025 Rankings, Just Capital is proud to present its list of Industry leaders, or companies that receive the highest overall rank within each of our 36 industries.
Of this year’s 36 industry leaders, 21 companies remained the leaders of their industry while 15 companies dropped out of the industry leader spot this year. Below is the full list of industry leaders for 2025. Industry leader shifts can be explained by both improved year-over-year performance of individual companies as well as shifting industry compositions.
Among the industry leaders, the following saw the biggest increases in their rank (and are not influenced by treatments, such as Unique Event Treatment, applied to the model). Three of these five companies (The Hershey Company, Lear Corporation, and Otis Worldwide Corporation) also moved into the Just 100.
This year, 30 out of the 36 industries were represented in the JUST 100: In other words, six industry leaders are not part of the JUST 100 this year. These industry leaders are listed below.
Industry Trends in 2025
Though there are 30 industries represented in the JUST 100, some industries make up a higher share of the JUST 100 than others. There are:
Certain industries tend to perform better than others, on average. Companies in the Utilities and Chemicals industries rank, on average, the highest at 275 and 317, respectively. When breaking industry average rank down by the five Stakeholders, we find that:
Companies in the Internet and Commercial Vehicles & Machinery industries saw some of the largest average gains in rank, rising 118 and 103 ranks, respectively. Companies in the Telecommunications and Clothing & Accessories industries saw the biggest average declines, dropping 91 and 75 ranks, respectively.
For more information on our Rankings, to engage with us on our corporate initiatives, please reach out to us.
In our 2025 Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies, we remain dedicated to capturing companies’ commitment to all of their stakeholders. We also recognize the importance of addressing the whole of each stakeholder, which in a practical application can mean the entirety of a company’s workforce – including workers who aren’t legally or technically considered employees.
To that end, prior to the 2023 Rankings, we employed an “Under Review” designation for companies that meet two criteria: business models that center gig workers and self-identification as members of the Flex Association. This applied to three companies in our Russell 1000 universe at the time: Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash.
Beginning with the 2023 Rankings, we have been reaching out to these companies requesting additional data to help us more accurately capture the experience of gig workers and to ensure that these companies’ scores reflect the entirety of their workforce. In our outreach to Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, we request public company sources with information about the share of gig workers in their workforce, as well as the offerings and policies accessible to them. Using the information provided, we proportionately discount the scores of these companies across our Workers stakeholder data points when there is no evidence that gig workers are covered by the offerings or workplace policies tracked in our model.
This year, in our review of companies meeting these criteria, we determined that Maplebear (Instacart), which joined our Russell 1000 universe, should also receive a similar treatment.
We recognize that our work in capturing the workplace experience of the many Americans who work in the gig economy, or more broadly as contractors, remains in progress, but we believe that continuing this approach is a step in the right direction. Our team will work to further refine our methodology to ensure that we best capture companies’ commitment to all their workers.
Just Capital’s annual Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies assess corporate performance of the Russell 1000 against the priorities that matter most to the American public. Throughout the year, we monitor any unique events that are not captured by our current metrics and should theoretically impact a company’s overall score and rank. We identify those events as instances which result from a company’s actions or inactions and satisfy the following criteria: (1) considered material to just business behavior as defined by the American public, (2) have the potential to affect a company’s standing outside the normal architecture of our ranking process, and (3) are sudden, extreme, or unusual in nature.
This year, the four companies which received a unique event treatment are: Wells Fargo, Tesla, Johnson & Johnson, and Boeing.
The process of determining a unique event involves monitoring media coverage of companies through an independent feed with minimized bias, as well as consultation with the public, independent specialists, and other neutral third parties.
The details of each event, and how a company has or hasn’t responded to it, will determine the type of treatment given to the company’s overall Ranking performance. These treatments, in order of increasing severity, are Serious (I), Severe (II), and Most Severe (III). Each step of the process, including the final results, are reviewed by independent specialists and other neutral third parties.
This year, Just Capital is applying the unique event treatments only to the Most Severe (III) category. Each event should fall into one of five stakeholders, with each company receiving the lowest score corresponding to that stakeholder that the event pertains to.
We identified 41 companies throughout the monitoring process, which were cross referenced along geographical and legal considerations amongst the full Russell 1000. From that, we evaluated 18 events which satisfied Just’s criteria for a unique event. We narrowed down to a further four incidents and the related companies which received the Most Severe (III) category qualified for a unique event treatment. Further details on the monitoring process and evaluation criteria can be found in our 2025 Rankings Methodology.
The four cases which Just evaluated as Most Severe (III) are as follows:
The first recurring unique event case applies to Wells Fargo, a financial services company that provides retail, commercial, and corporate banking services through branches, the internet, and other channels to individuals, businesses, and institutions across the U.S. and in other countries. Given the evidence of its history of labor and banking violations, such as creating fake accounts and retaliation against its employees who speak up about labor conditions, continued lack of meaningful remediation efforts, and more recently the controversies regarding unionization efforts, Just Capital has given Wells Fargo the lowest score for the Shareholder Stakeholder.
The second recurring unique event case applies to Tesla. Tesla designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electric vehicles and energy storage systems and also installs, operates, and maintains solar and energy storage products. One of its products, the autopilot vehicles, has resulted in hundreds of crashes and several fatalities. Since last year, there has been at least one additional fatality attributed to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology. In response to these events, Tesla’s communication regarding the safety of its products has also been misleading to its customers, and has doubled down on this technology with the unveiling of its new robotaxi, Cybercab, despite significant safety concerns from experts and regulators. For these events, we have given Tesla the lowest score for the Customers Stakeholder.
The third recurring unique event case applies to Johnson & Johnson, which makes a range of health and well-being products in three business segments: consumer, pharmaceutical, and medical devices. Johnson & Johnson continues to attempt to use bankruptcy filings to avoid paying the estimated $9 billion settlement to tens of thousands of people affected by the contamination of its talc products. Due to the continuation of these financial maneuvers, Johnson & Johnson has received the lowest score for the Customers Stakeholder.
Since our initial unique event treatment, there have been no substantial changes in business practices by any of the above companies that would result in the removal of this treatment. Barring any significant changes in business practices specifically related to these events, this treatment will remain in effect for a maximum of three years. If another event or development occurs after the three-year period, the event can be evaluated and, in appropriate cases, treatment can be reinstated.
The fourth and final unique event treatment was applied to Boeing, which is an aerospace and defense corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells commercial airplanes, defense systems, and space technology to customers worldwide. On January 5, 2024, a fuselage plug door blew off mid-flight, the latest in several safety-related incidents that have plagued the manufacturer in recent years. Several whistleblowers have come forward alleging a culture that promotes production speed and efficiency over product safety. As a result of these events, Boeing has received the lowest score for the Customer Stakeholder.
In a slowing job market and signs of rising unemployment, understanding how companies invest in their workforce has never been more critical. Workers are increasingly asking for meaningful employee benefits and are vocal about their needs for better support, whether it’s for financial wellbeing and the ability to cover their living costs, assistance with caregiving responsibilities, or clear paths for career progression.
JUST Capital’s polling continuously shows how consistent Americans are when it comes to what they want the nation’s largest public companies to prioritize – their workers. Year over year, worker issues including living wage, benefits, career development, worker health and safety, and diversity and inclusion get the highest prioritization and in 2024 comprise 42% of a company’s score in our Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies.
Investing in workers was a recurring theme in JUST Capital focus groups that will inform the 2025 Rankings. Full findings will be published later this year. Related to how companies can create value for all their stakeholders, one participant shared:
“I feel like a happy employee makes a happy company.” – Male, 40-44, Moderate
And in fact, JUST Capital’s research shows exactly that: investing in workers pays off. Our Workers Leaders Index Concept – which tracks the top 20% of companies in our Rankings that perform best across all five worker-related issues – has outperformed the Russell 1000 Equal Weighted index by 16.46% from December 31, 2021 to July 31, 2024.
As we approach Labor Day, JUST Capital is highlighting the companies leading the way in fostering environments where workers feel valued, supported, and empowered to thrive by actively implementing comprehensive workplace policies that address their workers’ needs head-on. Our analysis found that the top 10 companies for worker issues are outpacing the rest of the Russell 1000 in a number of ways:
JUST Capital is proud to present the list below of Top 10 Companies for Workers with details on how they are leading on the issues that matter most to the American public. The following list is based on performance on Worker Issues from JUST Capital’s 2024 Rankings of America’s Most JUST Companies.
Ranked 2nd in Overall Rankings and 1st for Banks
Bank based in Charlotte, North Carolina
Bank of America invests in its employees’ financial and physical well-being by focusing on competitive wages and comprehensive benefits. The company demonstrates a commitment to paying living wages, with a minimum hourly wage of $23 – one of the highest disclosed among the Top 10 Companies for Workers and well above both the Russell 1000 average of $16.73 and the bank industry average of $18.22. In its commitment to supporting working families, Bank of America offers 16 weeks of paid leave for both primary and secondary caregivers and provides emergency backup care and subsidies for routine day care services. In addition, Bank of America embraces transparency on topics like pay equity and workforce demographics: it’s among the 12.5% of companies that publicly report the results of both their gender and race/ethnicity pay equity analyses and part of the 47% who disclose highly disaggregated workforce demographic data.
Ranked 5th in Overall Rankings and 2nd for Banks
Bank based in New York, New York
Citi demonstrates a strong commitment to fairness and family support through a range of initiatives focused on equity and employee-wellbeing. The company’s dedication to equity is reflected in its pay analysis results, which show that women globally earn over 99% of what men earn. Citi also provides highly disaggregated workforce demographic data by gender, race/ethnicity, and standardized job categories, underscoring its transparency and commitment to an inclusive environment. Supporting its workforce further, Citi offers up to 16 weeks of paid leave to primary caregivers and benefits like preferred access and up to 10% tuition discounts at Bright Horizons child care centers, along with emergency backup dependent care. The company also invests in professional development, providing an average of 38 training hours per employee and offering tuition reimbursement to support employees’ continuous learning.
Ranked 18th in Overall Rankings and 4th for Semiconductors & Equipment
Semiconductors & Equipment company based in Santa Clara, California
NVIDIA’s approach to fostering an equitable and supportive work environment is evident in its commitment to both pay equity and comprehensive employee benefits. Notably, the company offers robust parental leave benefits, including 22 weeks of fully paid leave for birth parents, 12 weeks of paid leave for non-birth parents, including fathers and adoptive parents, and support in offsetting childcare costs by providing a 10% discount on childcare at KinderCare centers. Additionally, NVIDIA stands out for its robust pay equity disclosure, as it is one of only 12.5% of companies overall and 23.5% among industry peers to disclose both their gender and race/ethnicity adjusted pay ratios. The company is also one of very few among the Russell 1000 companies we assess to disclose disaggregated pay equity data by different race/ethnicity categories, showcasing a high level of transparency.
Ranked 16th in Overall Rankings and 4th for Banks
Bank based in New York, New York
JPMorgan Chase invests in its employees’ financial well-being by offering a minimum hourly wage of $20, which exceeds the Russell 1000 average and represents the third highest minimum wage among banks. The company also supports new parents with 16 weeks of paid parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers and families with various caregiving services. JPMorgan Chase’s equity practices are also reflected in its pay gap analysis results, which show nearly equal compensation across gender and racial lines. Additionally, the company maintains transparency in its diversity efforts by disclosing detailed demographic data by gender, race/ethnicity, and job category.
Ranked 6th in Overall Rankings and 1st for Health Care Providers
Health Care Provider based in Bloomfield, Connecticut
Cigna demonstrates its commitment to workplace equity through pay equity analysis, showing near-parity in compensation for female and underrepresented minority employees. The company also prioritizes transparency by sharing highly detailed workforce demographic data by gender, race/ethnicity, and job category, reinforcing its focus on fostering an inclusive environment. Additionally, Cigna supports its employees’ work-life balance with key benefits including 18 days of paid time off and seven days of paid sick leave annually, paid parental leave, flexible scheduling opportunities, and emergency backup dependent care support.
Ranked 51st in Overall Rankings and 6th for Software
Software company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dayforce sets a high standard in the Software industry with its generous and inclusive parental leave policy, offering 17 weeks of paid leave to all caregivers. This is the highest offering at parity among the Top 10 companies and far surpasses the Russell 1000 average of 11 and 8 weeks of paid parental leave for primary and secondary caregivers, respectively. Additionally, Dayforce invests in its employees by providing unlimited paid time off, 10 days of paid sick leave annually, and both backup and subsidized dependent care benefits. Flexible scheduling opportunities further reflect Dayforce’s dedication to fostering a work environment that truly supports its employees’ diverse needs.
Ranked 90th in Overall Rankings and 1st for Consumer & Diversified Finance
Consumer & Diversified Finance company based in Detroit, Michigan
Ally Financial is among the Top 10 companies with the highest minimum wage of $23 per hour. This wage exceeds the Russell 1000 average of $16.73 and the Consumer & Diversified Finance industry average of $19.00, demonstrating a sustained commitment to competitive compensation for hourly employees. The company also supports working parents by offering equal parental leave to both primary and secondary caregivers and providing discounts on childcare to help ease caregiving costs. This combination of competitive wages and comprehensive family support underscores the company’s ongoing investment in its employees’ well-being and stability.
Ranked 9th in Overall Rankings and 2nd for Semiconductors & Equipment
Semiconductors & Equipment company based in Santa Clara, California
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) demonstrates a strong commitment to employee well-being through a comprehensive range of benefits, supporting their work-life balance and professional development. AMD offers 12 weeks of fully-paid parental leave for the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child, ensuring equitable support for all parents and new families alike. Also, the company provides up to 20 days of subsidized backup care annually to help employees with their caregiving expenses. In addition to its family-friendly policies, AMD supports employees’ work-life balance with a minimum of 15 days of paid time off, 20 days of paid sick and family time off, and workplace flexibility, enabling employees to choose what best fits their needs. AMD also supports employees’ professional development and encourages continuous learning through its education assistance program which offsets the cost of education.
Ranked 10th in Overall Rankings and 3rd for Semiconductors & Equipment
Semiconductors & Equipment company based in Boise, Idaho
Micron offers a range of robust benefits to support its employees, including 12 weeks of fully-paid parental leave for all expectant parents and at least 17 days of paid time off annually for rest and recovery. Additionally, the company supports career development and skill enhancement through its academic advancement program which provides financial assistance and resources for employees to pursue higher education and professional certifications. What’s more, Micron provides an average of 62 hours of career training per team member annually, significantly exceeding the industry average of 21 hours. Micron also performs regular pay equity analyses to foster a culture of fairness, ensuring sustained pay equity globally for women and people with disabilities, as well as across race/ethnicity and veteran status in the U.S.
Ranked 26th in Overall Rankings and 2nd for Transaction Processing
Transaction Processing company based in San Jose, California
Paypal demonstrates a strong commitment to employee support through its equitable compensation practices, robust professional development opportunities, and comprehensive benefits package. The company regularly conducts pay equity analyses by gender and race/ethnicity, and its latest assessment reveals that it has maintained 100% global gender and U.S. ethnic pay equity, reflecting its ongoing commitment to fairness and inclusivity. In addition to its focus on equitable compensation, PayPal supports employees’ professional development by offering tuition reimbursement to help cover educational costs and an average of 48 hours of training per employee annually, which is 2.4 times more than the industry average. The company also provides a comprehensive benefits package which includes unlimited paid time off, five days of paid sick leave, equal paid parental leave for all parents, and both subsidized and backup dependent care. To further promote work-life balance, Paypal also offers flexible working arrangements like hybrid work to accommodate diverse needs.
To learn more about our methodology, unpack your company’s performance on worker issues in the 2024 Rankings, and gain insights into how to improve on the issues that matter most to the American public, please reach out to corpengage@justcapital.com.
