Twelve US banks and tech companies are facing a new global “median gender pay equity” shareholder advocacy campaign from, spearheaded by shareholder advocate Arjuna Capital, the company said at a news conference today.
Of the 12 targets, only Citibank chose to disclose early that its women employees make 29 percent less than men employees, said Natasha Lamb, Arjuna Managing Partner and lead filer of gender pay resolutions, told reporters.
The remaining median gender pay gap targets are Adobe, Amazon, Intel, Facebook, Google, BNYMellon, BofA, Wells Fargo, AmEx, JPMorgan and Mastercard.
Lamb said three of the companies, who she declined to name, are fighting the disclosure by asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to block the initiative.
“We don’t believe that will be possible,” said Lamb. “We’ll give an update when we get a response from the SEC.”
The proposals Arjuna has put in front of BofA and the 11 other companies it is targeting are available here and here.
“There’s still time and our conversations with companies have been productive for the most part,” Lamb said. “If we don’t come to a resolution in the next month or two, [the resolutions] will be set to go for a vote at the companies’ shareholders meetings.”
The companies are being asked to calculate the median pay women and men employees and managers receive, unadjusted for position or seniority, which Lamb said is critical in measuring the dearth of women in higher paying jobs and senior management positions at a company.
Arjuna, which has been active in advocating gender pay equality at the shareholder level since 2016, has already asked all the companies to calculate their gender pay inequities, which are adjusted for position, seniority and longevity. “We know that women make 80% on the dollar. Now we’re asking companies to measure median gender pay. One is adjusted and one is unadjusted. Together they tell the whole story of why and how women are paid,” Lamb said.
US companies have made “good progress” in reporting equal-pay-for-equal-work numbers, and many have closed this gap to zero or less than 1 percent, she said. But women and minorities are still dramatically underrepresented in high-level positions at US companies, which results in sometimes huge median pay gaps.