Target Receives the First Perfect A+ on ‘Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard’
Target is at the top of its class when providing quantitative disclosures on employee pay equity, according to the sixth annual “Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard” from Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact.
The retailer earned the only “A+” in the study of 68 major U.S. corporations. Starbucks, Lowe’s, Best Buy and Home Depot received “A” grades.
Target received its perfect score “due to disclosure of 100 percent equal unadjusted and adjusted racial and gender pay gaps and full disclosure of its methodology,” according to the report. It’s the first time in the study’s six years that a corporation has earned the “A+” distinction.
“Target’s score of A+ is really something to celebrate this Equal Pay Day,” said Natasha Lamb, managing partner of Arjuna Capital, in a statement. “Racial and gender pay gaps are structural and persistent, but the Scorecard holds up those companies that are doing the real and honest work to create pay equity.”
Twenty-five companies received an “F” for failing to disclose pay data. Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact grade on quantitative disclosures and not quantitative assurances. Retailers on that list included Walmart, TJX Companies, Costco and Kroger.
Only 18 of the 68 corporations in the study currently disclose or have committed to disclosing pay gaps in the next year. The research found that 38 percent of the consumer companies on its list report median pay gaps.
“Women and people of color are almost always deeply underrepresented in higher paying positions. Median pay gap data sheds a light on that problem, and studies show that companies that disclose pay gaps are more likely to fix them,” said Michael Passoff, Proxy Impact CEO.
Fixing the racial and gender pay gap is an economic imperative, according to the report’s authors, who cite a McKinsey study and another from PwC as evidence for their case.
“McKinsey projects closing the racial wealth gap could increase GDP by 4-6 percent by 2028, netting the U.S. economy $1 to $1.5 trillion. And PwC’s ‘2022 Women in Work Index’ estimates the gender pay gap could boost the economies of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries by $2 trillion annually — an opportunity we should embrace.”