HRC's Corporate Equality Index: One Facet of a Broader Picture

The Human Rights Campaign released its fifth annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI) today, ranking companies based on their benefits, protections, and outreach to the LGBT community. The number of companies scoring a perfect 100 rose to 138 from last year’s 101. HRC reports:

Among the companies surveyed in the new report, this year:

75 percent more companies than in 2005 prohibited discrimination against transgender employees in employment practices;

64 percent more implemented at least one wellness benefit for transgender employees;

35 percent more extended COBRA, vision, dental and dependent medical coverage to employees’ same-sex domestic partners; and

14 percent more engaged in philanthropic or marketing activities directed toward the GLBT community.

Almost all of the companies rated — 436, or 98 percent — include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination polices.

That’s good news. For many of us, however, LGBT friendliness is only one factor to consider in employment or purchase decisions. Treatment of non-white employees, working mothers, other women, and the disabled are also important. For example, three companies on Working Mother’s 2005 100 Best Companies list (2006 is not yet out)—Abbott, Avon, and Bayer, scored a low 50, 30, and 15, respectively, on HRC’s list. FedEx and Kellogg are on Black Enterprise’s 2006 40 Best Companies for Diversity list, but only scored 55 and 50 on HRC’s Index. On the flip side, half the companies on Black Enterprise’s list also scored 100 on HRC’s scale, and eight are on Working Mother’s list as well. Three are on Career & the disABLED’s list of the top 50 companies for people with disabilities.

One needs to treat such cross-references with care, however. The fact that a company doesn’t appear on any given list could be because of how the list is defined. HRC and Black Enterprise only look at large companies, whereas Working Mother allows private or public firms of any size, except for those “in the business of providing work/life or child-care services.” Career & the disABLED ranks its list based on the number of readers who named a particular company, not on a set of empirical standards. Also, while HRC and Career & the disABLED rank companies from best to worst, Black Enterprise and Working Mother simply name the best.

Diversity, Inc.’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity list is probably the best apples-to-apples evaluation of companies across multiple “diversity” categories, and includes the important factor of CEO commitment. It also produces separate “Top 10 Companies” lists for African Americans, Asian Americans, Executive Women, GLBT Americans, Latinos, and People with Disabilities. (Most of its Web content is members-only, however.) Yet Abbott Labs, eighth on its list, gets a mediocre 50 percent from HRC.

No list is perfect. Everyone is going to have a quibble with one or another of them. One big gap I see is that none of the publications above look at political contributions by companies and their executives, which may support candidates whose positions run counter to companies’ internal policies. (General Motors, for example, is an HRC 100-percenter, yet makes 74% of its political contributions to Republicans. Without knowing specific recipients and their positions, I can’t be certain, but on the surface, this doesn’t seem good for the LGBT cause.)

Furthermore, diversity lists don’t even go into other factors people may care about, such as environmental policies or overall business ethics. (Abbott Labs again, for example, has come under fire for jacking up the price of one of its AIDS drugs.) Good policies are also not proof of enforcement. Diversity ratings are a reasonable starting point for potential employees and customers, though, especially those willing to dig a little deeper.

I’ll close by highlighting some of the companies that scored particularly low—below 50—on HRC’s list, but which many of us may come across in our daily lives as parents:

ExxonMobil Corp.: 0
J. C. Penney Co.: 50
Hershey Co.: 50
Kellogg Co.: 50
Domino’s Pizza: 45
Kroger Co. (Grocery chain): 35
H. J. Heinz Co.: 15
Meijer Inc. (Grocery chain): 0
Nestle Purina PetCare Co.: 15
Nokia: 50
Scholastic Corp.: 50
Toys ‘R Us Inc.: 45