#DearCEO

Pausing on disclosure or turning back the clock on workplace fairness?

Companies participating in the Workforce Disclosure Initiative survey made only 65% of responses public in 2020, down from 85% in 2019. The sudden reversal in transparency was especially sharp on questions about diversity and inclusion, wage levels and pay gaps, and supply-chain transparency. These findings indicate that the corporate sector placed less emphasis on workplace equality during the pandemic—but they also reinforce the value of measuring workforce composition. Companies with more than 30% female representation on boards were more likely to resolve discrimination and harassment incidents than those with less, and the longer a company had participated in the survey, the lower its ethnicity and gender pay gaps were on average.

Read Bloomberg Opinion article.