Duke, Starbucks, others to show diversity data: NYC's Stringer

[September 28, 2020]  By Ross Kerber and Imani Moise

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. corporations including Duke Energy Corp, Starbucks Corp and Wells Fargo & Co will make public detailed workforce diversity statistics, following calls from activists who say the information will help judge companies' progress in hiring and promoting minorities.

The commitments by 34 companies in the S&P 100 were set to be announced on Monday by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who oversees retirement assets and sought the data in July.

The disclosures will roughly double the number of U.S. companies publicly offering information that large employers already file confidentially to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
 

Releasing the details in early 2021 "will allow stakeholders to better understand our workforce profile and our diversity, equity and inclusion journey," said Katherine Neebe, chief sustainability officer for power utility Duke, via e-mail.

Corporate America's lack of minority representation has drawn new attention amid a wave of anti-racism activism since the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in police custody in Minneapolis in May.

Some companies this year have already made their number public, including Snapchat parent Snap Inc.

The company logo and ticker for Duke Energy Corp. is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Its most recent federal form, released in July, shows out of 488 mid-level officials and managers, 2% were Black and 5% were Hispanic or Latino, far below the groups' share of the U.S. population but close to what other technology companies have reported.

A Snap spokeswoman noted it also set goals including to double the number of its U.S. racial and ethnic minority employees by 2025.

Many companies currently give partial diversity statistics including Duke and coffee retailer Starbucks, which declined to comment on Stringer's announcement.

Another, Wells Fargo, told Stringer's office it will make more data public as "a next step in the evolution of our transparency and disclosure process," a spokesman said.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston and by Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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