In a report published by the Heritage Foundation, researcher Jonathan Butcher scoured Fortune 500 companies’ statements and reports on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and found that there has been a little “retreat” superficially, but the vast majority still retain commitments to the policies. From the study:
Despite these examples of companies retreating from DEI, nearly all Fortune 500 companies still list commitments to DEI on their websites. This Backgrounder reviews the DEI statements or other documents indicating DEI positions, such as ESG statements and annual reports, and finds that 486 of the top 500 still have some statement or corporate commitment to DEI provided on their websites…
DEI terminology is hard to define, and DEI proponents have no consistent definitions for what they are advocating for or against. DEI officials’ actions, however, and stated positions on issues involving race, appear discriminatory and may violate state and federal civil rights laws. This paper explains the research, and the financial and legal challenges that companies appropriately face when they adopt commitments to DEI….
DEI programs have opaque objectives. According to an article in the Academy of Management Learning & Education, “diversity has evolved into a rather amorphous field where the very word itself invokes a variety of meanings and emotional responses.” The researchers report that a survey of corporate human resource (HR) managers found eight definitions of “diversity” among respondents. Seventy-one percent of respondents said their organization did not have an “official definition.” Another survey of HR professionals found that just slightly more than half (55 percent) said their organization had a DEI statement, but 80 percent of respondents said their organization required staff to undergo DEI training—which means many employees undergo training without their organization’s personnel explaining what DEI means.
The findings are not surprising. For example, as NLPC noted at the end of November, despite reports that Walmart is rolling back its DEI initiatives, the truth is — for the most part — that companies are either discontinuing measures that they planned to sunset anyway, or are just calling their DEI efforts by another name, like “belonging.”
Thus the reason for many shareholder proposals that NLPC is presenting for corporate annual meetings in the spring of 2025, which request that boards of directors examine and eliminate all pay incentives based on DEI for executive officers. Hiring and promotion metrics that depend on race and gender percentages are discriminatory, and company officials should not be incentivized to pursue such quotas.
Examples of those proposals that we submitted for American Express and McDonald’s can be viewed here and here, respectively.
Bloomberg reported on our DEI proposals last month.
