NYC Comptroller and Pension Fund Trustees Announce Agreements With 11 Companies to Disclose Annual Workforce Diversity Data

 

11 Companies Have Committed to Publishing Their EEO-1 Reports Annually. The Number of S&P 100 Companies Disclosing EEO-1s Has Risen from 14 to 85 since 2020.

 New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the New York City Fire Pension Fund, the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System, and the custodian of the New York City Board of Education Retirement System, announced that they have reached agreements with the boards of 11 companies to disclose annual workforce diversity data following successful shareowner engagements.

The following companies have agreed to the annual disclosure of their Consolidated EEO-1 Report:  American Express, Anthem, Honeywell International, Illumina, Intuitive Surgical, Raytheon Technologies, Simon Property Group, Texas Instruments, The PNC Financial Services Group, T-Mobile, and Zoetis.

“Transparency and data are necessary for investors to hold companies accountable for their public statements and commitments to equity and racial justice. In response to advocacy by New York City’s pension funds and allies over the past two years, corporate resistance to disclosure of EEO-1 data has given way, and now the vast majority of S&P 100 companies will disclose comparable data,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. 

Since the July 2020 launch of the Diversity Disclosure Initiative, 78 large companies have agreed to disclose their EEO-1 Report in response to engagement by the New York City Retirement Systems. As a result, at least 85 S&P 100 companies now disclose, or have committed to disclose, their EEO-1 Report, up from about 14 in July 2020.

The Consolidated EEO-1 report is a comprehensive breakdown of a company’s workforce by race, ethnicity, and gender annually to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The report is broken into 10 employment categories, including senior management. These reports are an important tool for measuring a company’s progress on representation of employees of color and women at various levels of the corporation.

Transparency around workforce diversity is a concrete step companies can take to follow through on commitments to racial equity and diversity inside and outside of the workplace. With access to EEO-1 reports, investors can assess how much progress a company is making in their commitment to increase representation at all levels of the company.

Disclosure of the report will provide investors with critical information, including:

• Standardized, quantitative, and reliable data that is comparable across companies and industries, enabling investors to assess the representation of Black employees, other employees of color, and women at various levels of the corporation;
• Specific data on senior management diversity; and
• Particularized data that allows investors to assess the representation of specific racial and ethnic groups by gender, such as Black female employees, in a job category – and to make meaningful, year‐over‐year comparisons.

The agreement to disclose EEO-1 reports was reached after successful engagement with the Comptroller’s office on behalf of the New York City Retirement Systems, resulting in the withdrawal of shareowner proposals.

The New York City Retirement Systems are composed of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, New York City Police Pension Fund, and New York City Fire Department Pension Fund. Four of the five funds participate in the Diversity Disclosure Initiative.

Trustees of the relevant systems include:

New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS): New York City Comptroller Brad Lander; Mayor Eric Adams’ Representative Preston Niblack; New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Borough Presidents: Mark Levine (Manhattan), Donovan Richards (Queens), Antonio Reynoso (Brooklyn), Vito Fossella (Staten Island), and Vanessa L. Gibson (Bronx); Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Tony Utano, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; and Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS): New York City Comptroller Brad Lander; Mayor Eric Adams’ Appointee Philip Dukes; Chancellor’s Representative, Lindsey Oates, New York City Department of Education; and Debra Penny (Chair), Thomas Brown and David Kazansky, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

New York City Fire Pension Fund (Fire): New York City Comptroller Brad Lander; Mayor Eric Adams’ Representative Philip Dukes; Acting New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Preston Niblack; Andrew Ansbro, President, Robert Eustace, Vice President, Edward Brown, Treasurer, and Eric Bischoff, Staten Island Representative and Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; Liam Guilfoyle, Captains’ Rep.; Paul Mannix, Chiefs’ Rep., and Christopher Jensen, Lieutenants’ Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and Peter Devita, Marine Engineers Association.

Board of Education Retirement System (BERS): Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Represented by Lindsey Oates; Mayoral: Tom Allon, Vasthi Acosta, Gregory Faulkner, Dr. Angela Green, Anthony Lopez, Alan Ong, Gladys Ward, Karina Tavera; Thomas Sheppard (CEC); Geneal Chacon (Bronx), Tazin Azad (Brooklyn), Kaliris Salas-Ramirez (Manhattan), Jaclyn Tacoronte (Staten Island), and Deborah Dillingham (Queens); and employee members John Maderich of the IUOE Local 891 and Donald Nesbit of District Council 37, Local 372.