visa, citi and pepsico: alamy; walmart: bloomberg; McDonalds: Getty Images
Walmart, Citigroup and nine other large, publicly traded corporations discuss steps they have taken to make their workforce, marketing and suppliers more diverse.
By Seth Matlins, Jabari Young and Ali Jackson-Jolley, Forbes Staff
In 2021, the Federal Government declared Juneteenth a national holiday. The catalyst to codifying the day, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S., was the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the subsequent protests and nationwide outcry demanding immediate action to combat the country’s systemic racism and inequity.
Corporations spoke out too, most notably on “Blackout Tuesday,” eight days after Floyd’s brutal killing. Started by two music industry executives, Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang (source), it became a day when many companies, particularly in the entertainment industry, paused business as usual. Participants that first year included Apple, Amazon, WarnerMusic and Spotify, who all used their social feeds and advertising clout to declare commitments to programs to diversify their leadership ranks and employee bases, guarantee equal pay across the board, increase partnerships with minority owned suppliers, and pledge millions to social causes. That was just the start and, in the coming months, many companies made many promises.
But talk is cheap—and so are pledges. Corporate transparency about diversity goals is still murky. Data on a company’s progress on these social initiatives is mostly voluntary, and the information that does reach the public is nearly all self-reported.
Acknowledging these challenges, Forbes is launching its first ever progress report on where big corporations stand in terms of their diversity and equity goals. To kick off the project, we sent surveys to 50 U.S. headquartered, publicly traded corporations from the Forbes Global 2000, our list of the world’s largest companies. The purpose was to learn about the status and progress of programs designed to boost racial and ethnic diversity in their US workforce, on their boards and among their suppliers. It also asked questions about pay equity, procurement spending and marketing initiatives.
The majority of the companies we contacted chose not to respond. Still, 11 did, including the nation’s largest retailer Walmart and banking giants Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase. “It’s not only the right thing to do,” says Cynthia Bowman, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bank of America, “but we’ve seen study after study that shows that (diversity) is incredibly good for business…We have very clear goals and outcomes that we want to drive.” Adds Citigroup’s Chief Diversity Officer Erika Irish Brown, “Transparency is a tool for accountability. Companies and organizations that are transparent around their data and goals, that is an accountability mechanism.”
Hopefully more companies will follow suit. After all, to paraphrase the late-great management guru Peter Drucker, it is up to all of us to make progress or risk perishing.
Below is a look inside what these 11 companies are doing to achieve social goals.
3M
Industry: Diversified Industrials
Market Cap: $57.3 Billion
Employees: 92,000
CEO: Michael F. Roman
Headquarters: St. Paul, MN
Workforce: In 2020, 3M set a of racial-ethnic workforce composition goals for its full-time employees at every level of the company. For example, the company’s goal was to ensure that 11.2% of senior management and executive-level positions were non-white U.S. employees, up from 5.6%. For entry-level workers and mid-level managers, the goal was 16.2% in the U.S. At a global level, 3M says it began setting workforce diversity goals in 2015, committing at the time to increasing the percentage of diverse employees from 32.6% to 65.2% by 2030. 3M did not share on where it stands on the goals.
Bloomberg
Pay Equity: While 3M says it has reached pay equity across all global regions, it has not established pay equity goals for any racial populations.
Partnerships: In 2020, 3M pledged to spend 10% with minority-owned businesses. At the time, the company’s minority-owned procurement spend was 3.91%. Since the goal was established, 3M’s procurement spend with minority-owned businesses grew to 6.9%, showing a 3% improvement.
Bank of America:
Industry: Financial Services
Market Cap: $234 Billion
Employees: 166,000
CEO: Brian Moynihan
Headquarters: Charlotte, NC
Workforce: Bank of America says it set racial-ethnic workforce goals for Black and Latino/Hispanic U.S. employees in 2017 to “mirror the clients and communities we serve at all levels of the company.” According to BofA, it hit its goal for Black and Hispanic/Latino full-time employees as of December 2022. To date, people of color make up 50% of its U.S. workforce, with Black American employees making up 14.5% of its total workforce and Latino Americans making up 18.8%.
Bloomberg
Pay Equity: When the company first reported on equal pay in 2018, BofA found that employees of color were paid on average, 99% of what white employees were paid, and women were paid 99% of what men were paid. Its 2022 Equal Pay Report found no difference in the average compensation received by women and people of color employees in the U.S., according to BofA.
Partnerships: Bank of America says roughly 10% of its goods and services came from diverse suppliers—$2 billion out of $19 billion spent—in 2022.
Social Commitments: In 2021, Bank of America pledged to invest $1.25 billion in communities of color throughout the U.S. by 2025. To date, the company says it has deployed more than $450 million and reported that it’s on track to hit its goal by 2025.
Citigroup
Industry: Financial Services
Market Cap: $94 Billion
Employees: 240,000
CEO: Jane Fraser
Headquarters: New York, New York
Workforce: By 2025, Citi aims for a full time workforce that’s 11.5% Black in North America and 16% Hispanic/Latino in the U.S., for roles at the assistant vice president level and above. Citi set these specific percentages based on internal, census and federal labor market data. It did not say what the breakdown was before it set these goals.
Getty Images
Pay Equity: Citi says a March 2023 study found no statistically significant difference in adjusted compensation for U.S. minorities and non-minorities.
Partnerships: Citi set, and has already hit, a goal to spend $1 billion a year with diverse suppliers, including $250 million with Black-owned firms, by 2024.
JPMorgan Chase
Industry: Financial Services
Market Cap: $420 Billion
Employees: 294,000
CEO: James Dimon
Headquarters: New York City
Workforce: JPMorgan Chase says its non-white, non-Hispanic employees made up 32% of the company’s full-time workforce in the U.S. in 2020. That same year, the company established quantitative goals for the racial and ethnic composition but has not shared specifics.
Bloomberg
Pay Equity: There was no statistically significant difference in pay between non-white and white employees, according to a 2022 study the firm conducted.
Partnerships: JPMorgan says it’s on track to meet its pledge to spend an additional $750 million with designated minority-owned businesses, suppliers, and vendors by 2025. The company publicly reports and tracks its progress against procurement promises.
Mastercard, Inc
Industry: Consumer Financial Services
Market Cap: $360 Billion
Employees: 29,900
CEO: Michael Miebach
Headquarters: Purchase, NY
Bloomberg
Pay Equity: Mastercard says a 2022 study found no statistically significant difference in adjusted compensation for its non-white and white employees.
Partnerships: In 2020, Mastercard pledged to annually spend $100 million with Black suppliers—including manufacturers, service providers and law firms by 2025. The company says it has hit that goal in both 2021 and 2022.
Social Commitments: In 202o, Mastercard pledged to invest $500 million in Black communities throughout the U.S. by 2025. To date, the company says it has deployed more than $423 million toward that goal.
McDonald’s
Industry: Restaurants
Market Cap: $216 Billion
Employees: 150,000
CEO: Chris Kempczinski
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Workforce: McDonald’s says it set a goal to increase diverse U.S. leadership representation (Senior Director and above) to 35% by the end of 2025. The company reports they now stand at 30%, and expects to meet the goal on time.
mcdonalds
Pay Equity: McDonald’s reported that, as of 2021, they have attained equal pay for all underrepresented groups.
Partnerships: In 2020, McDonald’s set a goal of spending 25% of its purchasing and marketing budgets with diverse-owned suppliers by 2025. It says it hit the goal in 2022.
Marketing Commitment: McDonald’s set a goal to allocate 15% of its ad spending to minority-owned publishers, platforms, and media companies by the end of 2024. To date, McDonald’s says its marketing spend with minority-owned companies is 7.7%.
PepsiCo
Industry: Beverages
Market Cap: $258 Billion
Employees: 315,000
CEO: Ramon Laguarta
Headquarters: Purchase, NY
pepsico
Workforce: In 2020, PepsiCo announced its “Racial Equality Journey” initiative to invest at least $570 million over five years to increase its Black and Latino workforce and diversify its partnerships and supply chain. PepsiCo aims to raise their Black and Hispanic/Latino managerial populations each to 10%, representing a 20% increase for Black managers and 7% for Hispanic/Latino managers. Black managers now make up 8.3% of leadership, Hispanic/Latino 9.5%.
Partnerships: PepsiCo tracks their spending with designated minority-owned businesses and has set goals to triple the number. In 2020, diverse suppliers received 5%, or $1 billion) of Pepsi’s total spend. Its goal is to raise the number to 15%, or $3 billion, a year.
United Parcel Service
Industry: Air Courier
Market Cap: $152 Billion
Employees: 536,000
CEO: Carol B. Tomé
Headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
Bloomberg
Workforce: In 2016, UPS set goals to have 35% of its full-time management workforce be ethnically diverse by 2022. It says it surpassed that goal in 2021 and set a new target for full-time management to be 40% ethnically diverse by end of 2025. It says it’s currently up to 37%.
Partnerships: UPS tracks spending with diverse businesses. It says it is on track to spend more than $1 billion with certified diverse businesses in 2023, up from just over $300 million in 2017.
Visa
Industry: Consumer Financial Services
Market Cap: $470 Billion
Employees: 26,550
CEO: Ryan McInerney
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Alamy
Workforce: In 2020, the company set a goal to increase the number of ethnically and racially diverse Visa employees in the U.S. by 50% by 2025. At that time, the company’s full-time, non-white workforce made up 20% of its U.S. employees. Visa claims it has reached that goal two years ahead of schedule.
Pay Equity: Visa created pay equity goals prior to 2020, and reports that pay equity has been reached.
Walgreens Boots Alliance
Industry: Drug Retail
Market Cap: $27 Billion
Employees: 325,000
CEO: Rosalind Brewer
Headquarters: Deerfield, Illinois
Walgreens
Workforce: In 2020 the pharmacy giant established racial-ethnic goals for management and executive level jobs. Since then, Walgreens reports an approximately 9% increase in employees of color working in leadership roles. That includes Rosalind Brewer, formerly Starbucks’ Chief Operating Officer, who was hired as CEO in 2021, making her the only Black woman at the helm of an S&P 500 company
Partnerships: Walgreens set out to spend $625 million on products that came from diverse suppliers in its fiscal year 2022 ending in August, up $125 million versus the previous year. It passed that goal by $400,000 according to the company.
Walmart
Industry: Discount Stores
Market Cap: $420 Billion
Employees: 2.1 million
CEO: Doug McMillon
Headquarters: Bentonville, Arkansas
Workforce: Walmart reports that the percentage of non-white employees has increased to 48% from 42% since 2015. At the management level, Walmart says the percentage of non-white employees increased to 41% from 31%. At the executive levels, non-white officers increased to 28%, up from 22%.
Bloomberg
Pay Equity: The company stated that pay equity goals have been established for all non-white and Hispanic/Latino populations, and that equity has been reached.
Partnerships: The company tracks total spending with U.S.-based, minority-owned businesses, suppliers, and vendors, but did not share whether goals have been established to increase the percentage spent. It did say that it purchased more than $13 billion worth of goods and services from diverse suppliers as of May 2023.
Marketing Commitment: Walmart set a goal in 2021 to allocate 4% of its ad spending to minority-owned publishers, platforms, and media companies. Walmart reported it has hit the goal in fiscal year 2023.
MORE FROM FORBES
