NYC Comptroller Lander & Pension Fund Trustees Announce Agreements with Retail and Consumer Product Giants to Disclose Annual Workforce Diversity Data

 

Agreements reached with Dollar Tree, Grocery Outlet Holding & Mattel; Proposal also filed at DICK’s Sporting Goods requesting the company follow suit

Success builds on leadership securing crucial EEO-1 disclosure agreements

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and trustees of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System, and New York City Board of Education Retirement System (collectively, the Systems), announced that they reached agreements with the boards of Dollar Tree, Grocery Outlet Holding and Mattel to disclose annual workforce diversity data following successful shareowner engagements. The Systems have also filed a proposal at DICK’s Sporting Goods requesting this disclosure.

“When companies disclose their workforce diversity, investors get a real look at how companies uphold their commitment to equity and inclusion. EEO-1 data serves as a powerful tool for investors to hold companies accountable, enabling us to assess progress and ensure they live up to their own standards. This transparency encourages companies to foster a workplace that reflects the diverse perspectives essential for sustained success and long-term shareholder value,” said Comptroller Brad Lander.

In 2020, the Systems launched the successful Diversity Disclosure Initiative. Since then, nearly all S&P 100 companies have disclosed their EEO-1 report, up from about 14 in July 2020. Agreements have been reached with major companies including the Home Depot, McDonald’s Corporation, Netflix, Nike, Verizon Inc. Many smaller companies also disclose this report.

The Consolidated EEO-1 report is a comprehensive breakdown of a company’s workforce by race, ethnicity, and gender submitted annually to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The report is broken into ten 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 their commitments to racial equity and diversity inside and outside of the workplace. Disclosure of EEO-1 reports enables investors to assess the progress companies are making toward their commitments to increase representation at all levels of the organization.

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 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.

As of December 31, 2023, the three Systems have holdings valued at $26.9 million at DICK’s Sporting Goods, $28 million at Dollar Tree, $2.4 million at Mattel, and $445,694 at Grocery Outlet Holding Corp.

In addition to Comptroller Lander, the trustees of the aforementioned systems are as follows:

New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS): Mayor Eric Adams’ Appointee Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; Chancellor’s Representative, Gregory Faulkner, New York City Department of Education Panel for Educational Policy; and Thomas Brown (Chair), Victoria Lee, and David Kazansky, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS): Mayor Eric Adams’ Appointee Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Borough Presidents: Mark Levine (Manhattan), Antonio Reynoso (Brooklyn), Donovan Richards Jr. (Queens), Vito Fossella (Staten Island), and Vanessa L. Gibson (Bronx); Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Richard Davis, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; and Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS): Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Represented by Karine Apollon; Mayoral appointees Lilly Chan, Marjorie Dienstag, Gregory Faulkner, Anita Garcia, Anthony Giordano, Alan Ong, Phoebe Sade-Arnold, Maisha Sapp, Venus Sze-Tsang, Gladys Ward; CEC appointees Naveed Hasan, Jessamyn Lee, Thomas Sheppard, and Ephraim Zakry; Borough President Appointees Geneal Chacon (Bronx); Tazin Azad (Brooklyn); Kaliris Salas-Ramirez (Manhattan); Shirley Aubin (Queens); Aaron Bogad (Staten Island); and employee members John Maderich of the IUOE Local 891 and Donald Nesbit of District Council 37, Local 372.