After Outreach from Comptroller Stringer and NYC Pension Funds, Six Major Companies Agree to Gender Pay Equity Transparency
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and the New York City Pension Funds recently announced agreements with six major healthcare and insurance companies — two industries which have the highest adjusted gender pay gaps in the nation – to disclose information on how they address gender pay equity.
“Now more than ever, we need to publicly commit to ending the gender pay gap – and these companies are leading the way. When women succeed, our economy succeeds. When shareowners stand up and companies take action, our investments perform better. Transparency is critical to eliminating these gaps,” New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said. “If companies refuse to be open and honest — if they ignore investors’ concerns — we have to take a stand. This is not just about fairness — it’s about good management. There’s no excuse for companies to hide this information.”
Nationwide, women earn about 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Further, studies have shown that the healthcare and insurance industries have some of the largest gender pay gaps — even when controlling for age, education, and years of experience, they are 33% higher than the average across the country. These discrepancies can affect women throughout their entire career — other findings regarding corporate diversity include:
• While women make up 78% of the healthcare workforce, they represent just 20% of the executive leadership at Fortune 500 healthcare companies. Nearly two-thirds of those companies have corporate boards that are over 75% male.
• Further, women make up more than 60% of the insurance industry, but hold just 10% of executive positions at insurance companies. More than 80% of board seats in the insurance industry are male.
• Yet, companies with greater gender diversity are 15% more likely to have better financial returns than male-dominated firms.
The six companies that have agreed to disclose meaningful information on gender pay equity include:
• AIG and Prudential Financial, which have for the first time released information on how they review employee salaries and work to ensure women and men are compensated equally. Both are confident they do not have a statistically significant gender pay gap;
• Aflac, which will disclose its female to male salary ratio, opportunities for advancement, and details on board oversight of compensation and benefits in its next Corporate Social Responsibility report;
• Allstate, which will publish a diversity report later this year
discussing its annual compensation review process, gender pay equity adjustment
policies, opportunities for advancement, and details on board oversight
of diversity efforts; and
• Anthem and UnitedHealth Group, which have agreed to conduct additional analyses.
The NYC Pension Funds’ shareowner proposal requesting disclosure of whether a company has a gender pay gap will go to a vote at upcoming annual meetings of at least three companies — Aetna, Express Scripts, and The Travelers Company — all of which refused to disclose meaningful gender pay information. The Comptroller’s Office is still in discussions with a fourth company, McKesson Corporation.
“Gender pay equity disclosures should be a market standard — and we applaud these companies for embracing transparency and fairness. But at the firms that aren’t releasing this information, investors have an opportunity to make a stand. This is simply too important for companies to ignore,” Comptroller Stringer added.
To view an example of the letter Comptroller Stringer sent to these companies, click here.
Comptroller Stringer serves as the investment advisor to, and custodian and a trustee of, the New York City Pension Funds. The New York City Pension Funds are composed of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, New York City Police Pension Fund, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund and the Board of Education Retirement System.
In addition to Comptroller Stringer, the New York City Pension Funds’ trustees are:
New York City Employees’ Retirement System: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Representative, John Adler (Chair); New York City Public Advocate Letitia James; Borough Presidents: Gale Brewer (Manhattan), Melinda Katz (Queens), Eric Adams (Brooklyn), James Oddo (Staten Island), and Ruben Diaz, Jr. (Bronx); Henry Garrido , Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; John Samuelsen, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.
Teachers’ Retirement System: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Appointee, John Adler (Chair); Raymond Orlando, representing the Chairperson of the Panel for Educational Policy and Debra Penny, Thomas Brown and David Kazansky, all of the United Federation of Teachers.
New York City Police Pension Fund: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Representative, John Adler; New York City Finance Commissioner Jacques Jiha; New York City Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill (Chair); Patrick Lynch, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association; Michael Palladino, Detectives Endowment Association; Edward D. Mullins, Sergeants Benevolent Association; Louis Turco, Lieutenants Benevolent Association; and, Roy T. Richter, Captains Endowment Association.
New York City Fire Department Pension Fund: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Representative, John Adler; New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Jacques Jiha; James Slevin, President, Gerard Fitzgerald, Vice President, Edward Brown, Treasurer, and John Kelly, Brooklyn Representative and Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; John Farina, Captains’ Rep.; Paul Ferro, Chiefs’ Rep., and Jack Kielty, Lieutenants’ Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and, Thomas Phelan, Marine Engineers Association.
Board of Education Retirement System: Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña; Mayoral: Issac Carmignami, T. Elzora Cleveland, Vanessa Leung, Gary Linnen, Lori Podvesker, Stephanie Soto, Benjamin Shuldiner, Miguelina Zorilla-Aristy; Michael Kraft (Manhattan BP), Debra Dillingham (Queens BP), Geneal Chacon (Bronx BP) and Peter Calandrella (Staten Island BP); and employee members John Maderich of the IUOE Local 891 and Donald Nesbit of District Council 37, Local 372.
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