There is disappointment but not surprise at a new survey showing that nearly half of the largest publicly traded companies in America fail to disclose their efforts to hire and promote women and people of color.
“The fact that such a large percentage of companies don’t voluntarily disclose suggests either a general antipathy to granting the public access to important workplace information or concern about their workplace practices,” said Lane Windham, spokesperson for the AFL-CIO.
The most surprising revelation showed that shareholders have borne $1 billion in costs resulting from discrimination lawsuits in the pharmaceutical, petroleum and consumer products industries, said Windham.
The survey involved Standard and Poor’s 100 companies, a listing of large firms that represent a broad range of industries, but three dropped out during the survey period. Of the 97 companies left, 53 percent did not respond to the research network’s survey at all.