The 2021 Corporate Racial Equity Tracker

Following last summer’s reckoning with racial injustice, prompted by the brutal killings of Black Americans and the devastating economic and health impacts of COVID-19 to communities of color, corporate leaders began to publicly acknowledge the ways in which systemic racism impacts their workforces, their communities, and society.

These events also shifted the public’s perceptions of corporate responsibility. In our recent survey research with The Harris Poll, we learned that 95% of Black Americans believe it’s important for companies to promote racial equity – defined by our program partner PolicyLink as “just and fair inclusion into a society in which all people can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential” – and 80% believe they can do more.

In this unprecedented moment, workers, customers, communities, and investors are calling on corporate America to drive change, but it continues to be challenging to assess how companies are taking concrete action to advance racial equity in America today.

JUST Capital has launched this Corporate Racial Equity Tracker to fill that gap and incentivize companies to take meaningful steps to advance racial equity. The first iteration offers an in-depth accounting of the state of disclosure by the 100 largest U.S. employers, through 23 data points across six specific dimensions of racial equity:

• Anti-Discrimination Policies
• Pay Equity
• Racial/Ethnic Diversity Data
• Education and Training Programs
• Response to Mass Incarceration
• Community Investments

By making the Tracker the cornerstone of a multi-year racial equity initiative, JUST Capital is working to ensure that the past year’s momentum carries forward.

A high-level analysis of the underlying data reveals that the nation’s 100 largest employers are more likely to disclose baseline DEI commitments, but less likely to disclose actions that show accountability toward progress. You can see how those distinctions break down in the data visualization below which provides a snapshot of the commitments and actions taken by the companies to date. Over time we will evolve the Tracker to feature more Russell 1000 companies, as well as additional actions related to racial equity. 

The Corporate Racial Equity Tracker

Delve into the Corporate Racial Equity Tracker below:

• Explore corporate commitments/actions via blue “tags.” Sort by company, industry, and the # of employees. Click on commitment/action (blue box) to link to the original data source.
• “Drill down” to explore details on specific commitments/actions within a given dimension. Click on a column header to sort.
• Click on or search for a company to see a comprehensive list of its responses and descriptions of all the commitments and actions.

Methodology

This Tracker uses information primarily found on company websites, corporate press releases, sustainability reports, diversity, equity, and inclusion reports, and company SEC filings to evaluate what steps America’s largest public employers – the 100 largest companies by U.S. employment size in the Russell 1000 Index – have taken to promote racial equity. The Tracker currently looks at six dimensions, or “tags,” of company commitments or actions related to racial equity, ranging from community investments to pay equity. 

When a company meets the criteria for a particular response (listed below), it receives a “tag” in the Tracker above, indicating that it has disclosed that commitment or action. Each tag links to the original data source. By using the “Drill Down” feature, you can explore more detailed information about a company’s response: for example, by filtering by the tag “Anti-Discrimination Policies,” you can find out if a company discloses multiple policies, including an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy, discrimination grievance mechanisms, or anti-harassment policy. The six dimensions – and their underlying details – include: 

Anti-Discrimination Policies: Company discloses an EEO (or diversity and opportunity) policy, quantitative diversity targets, discrimination grievance mechanisms, a harassment grievance mechanism, and/or an anti-harassment policy. A harassment grievance mechanism is what a company implements for employees to submit harassment or sexual harassment concerns whereas a discrimination grievance mechanism is for employees to safely report concerns or issues relating to discrimination more generally.

Community Investments: Company implements a supplier diversity policy, local sourcing policy, and/or funding for local schools.

Education and Training Programs: Company provides apprenticeship programs, tuition assistance, and/or a career development program to its employees.  

Pay Equity: Company conducts a pay equity analysis to examine pay discrepancies between white and non-white employees. Drill down to explore details about the frequency of analysis, whether or not a company discloses the results of its pay equity analysis, as well as the ratio of non-white to white employee pay. For example, if a company reports that employees who identify as non-white make $0.94 for every dollar a white employee makes, the non-white ratio disclosed would be $0.94.

Racial/Ethnic Diversity Data: Company discloses workforce demographic data and/or board demographic data. Board demographic data is measured as disclosure of board racial/ethnic diversity as well as the disclosed percent of non-white directors or director nominees on a company’s board. Company workforce demographic data is measured as three different levels of detail: Non-White Data, Detailed Data, and Intersectional Data. Non-White Data indicates that the company has disclosed general information about the number or share of non-white (often described as “minority”) workers; Detailed Data indicates that a company has at least disclosed either the number or share of workers who identify as Asian, Black, or Latinx; and Intersectional Data indicates that a company has disclosed the number or share of workers by gender, as well as by race and ethnicity, or information that would typically be found in an EEO-1 Report. 

Response to Mass Incarceration: Company discloses a re-entry policy, anti-prison labor policy, and/or a supplier anti-prison labor policy. A re-entry or fair chance policy is defined as a policy that removes employment barriers for people with criminal records. Anti-prison labor and supplier anti-prison labor policies are counted when a company explicitly bans voluntary or involuntary prison labor in its operations and in its supply chain, respectively.

Each corporation’s number of U.S. employees is based on the company’s total employment count in 2019 if business in the U.S. accounted for more than 95% of revenues or long-term assets. These headcounts are further adjusted for all additions of employees through acquired businesses or subtractions of employees through divested businesses. In cases where the U.S. headcount is not disclosed in company filings or publicly available material, we estimate the total U.S. employment size by multiplying the global employment size by the ratio of U.S. sales and long-term assets to global sales and long-term assets. 

Much of the data found in this Tracker was collected as part of our 2020 and 2021 Rankings data collection efforts. Data on Pay Equity and Workforce Demographic Data have been updated as recently as March 2021.Data on Disclosure of Board Diversity as well as data a newly added data point on the Percent of Non-white Directors or Director Nominees have been updated as recently as June 11, 2021. The Tracker was last updated on June 30 2021 at 6:00 PM EST.