BREAKING: 30% of Goldman Shareholders Vote to Release Pay Gap Data
PRESS RELEASE
Seattle | Wed. April 24, 2024
Shareholders Speak Loudly at Goldman Sachs Annual Meeting
Goldman Sachs investors (ticker: GS) sent a strong message in favor of broad-based and standardized pay gap reporting. More than 30% of stockholders at today's annual meeting voted FOR a Pay Equity shareholder proposal sponsored by Newground Social Investment – which, as-of the closing bell, represents $29.6 billion in Goldman stock.
"There is demonstrable value internally as well as externally for using consistent and comparable pay-equity metrics, as this proposal requests," said Newground chief executive Bruce Herbert. "And informed, independent shareholders clearly call on Goldman to (a) be more transparent, and (b) to use industry-standard tools and metrics.”
"Seen in the light of the number of shares that either do not vote or fall under management’s control and influence, 30% is an exceedingly strong outcome," Herbert continued. "So we look forward to future dialogue with the company to help it keep progressing.”
Today's positive outcome approximates the support received by a similar proposal at the 2023 meeting – indicating that investors remain eager for Goldman to take meaningful strides in this arena.
After all, following current U.S. trendlines: [1]
- White women will not reach pay equity until 2059 – three and a half decades from now
- Black women not until 2133 – more than a century from now, and
- Latina women not until 2206 – nearly two full centuries from now.
Transparent reporting of pay-equity data builds confidence with investors and creates loyalty among employees. It helps ensure that a company is managing pay-equity internally, and is on the path toward achieving diversity and inclusion goals. This is demonstrably good for business as well as for long-term profitability.
Nearly half of the largest 100 companies in the U.S. now report statistically adjusted pay data, and more than 40 U.S. companies are on the record for reporting median pay data. While adjusted pay data compares how people of color and women are paid for the same roles as their white male peers, unadjusted median pay data accounts for structural racism and sexism that relegate women and people of color to lower paid jobs.
Download a PDF of Newground's presentation made at today's Goldman Sachs shareholder meeting.
Note: This material is intended for educational purposes only. As with all our public writing, blog posts do not constitute tax or financial planning advice; likewise, they are neither an offer to sell nor solicitation to buy any investment or security.
