Over Half of S&P 500 Now Publish EEO-1 Reports

The share of S&P 500 companies disclosing EEO-1 reports has jumped from just 33% in 2021 to over 50% in 2023, according to a comprehensive ESG series from Teneo. Once the purview of only very large companies, the push to publish EEO-1 reports has trickled down to the rest of the S&P 500 over the past two years. An astounding 88% of such companies now disclose demographic data of some kind, with 46% presenting their own company-specific categories along with the EEO-1 report.

Dig deeper: The survey has some fascinating tidbits on ESG disclosure:

• Diverse representation goals. 48% of S&P 500 companies now disclose workforce representation goals that are either time-bound or have a quantitative metric.
  
  
• Pay gap. About 60% of companies mention conducting pay equity audits, but only 40% included the results. A third (32%) of companies shared adjusted pay gaps for gender (globally) and race/ethnicity (U.S. only). Only 7% of companies shared unadjusted pay gaps, despite activist investor pressure.

Staying the course on ESG: Teneo interviewed hundreds of CEOs and investors for its annual Outlook Survey and found that 92% of global CEOs said they will “stay the course” on ESG despite political headwinds. However, U.S.-based CEOs were divided on DEI initiatives, with half continuing or even accelerating programs while a third were re-evaluating.

Retention challenges: Interestingly, two in five investors said they believe ESG and DEI factors will present the greatest talent retention challenge for leading companies in the next 1-3 years. Only 28% of CEOs agreed, with a similar percentage arguing that compensation will be the biggest challenge.