Taking HRC's State of the Workplace Report to the Next Level

Published February 17, 2009 @ 10:35AM PT

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (the educational wing of the Human Rights Campaign) is out with their annual "State of the Workplace" report, which documents just how LGBT-friendly U.S. companies (particularly Fortune 500 companies) are. This year's findings? Sixty of the top 100 U.S. companies now have gender identity protections for their employees, a sharp rise over nine years ago, when only three of the top 500 companies had such protections. Moreover, 85 percent of the top 500 companies now have workplace anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation, and 57 percent of the top 500 provide domestic partnership benefits.

The report's information is certainly good news, as it demonstrates major headway that's been made among big business in terms of fostering inclusive workplaces and broadening the scope of benefits over the past ten years. But what about accounting for whether or not a company supports the right of same-sex couples to marry? Isn't that a question worth asking of companies before rating them on an LGBT rights index?

The HRC report does cite the fact that Levi Strauss & Company, Google, and Apple all signed an amicus brief submitted to the California State Supreme Court calling on the court to invalidate Proposition 8 and recognize equal marriage rights for all. But to the best of our knowledge, those companies aren't rewarded in HRC's index for taking the extra, bold step of supporting full marriage rights for same-sex couples. Shouldn't they be?

Maybe it's time for HRC to reconfigure what it means for a company to receive a perfect score on their LGBT-friendly index. It might also be a means of organizing big business to get behind same-sex marriage rights - something that will be critical to making marriage equality a reality in more than just Massachusetts and Connecticut.

*UPDATE: We should definitely clarify that HRC has two separate things here. One is the State of the Workplace report, and one is the Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The CEI is the instrument that rates companies on a scale of 1-100. HRC's State of the Workplace report, mentioned in this post, accounts for a company's CEI score, but is not in itself a scoring mechanism. HRC's next CEI will be published in Fall 2009.

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Comments (4)

Yes, the HRC Index is an imperfect guide. I did a post back in 2006 about a discrepancy between the HRC Index and a similar list from the Advocate. Fannie Mae, despite its perfect 100 score on HRC's list, contributed money from its corporate foundation to anti-gay causes, including $50,000 to the Traditional Values Coalition. The Advocate excluded it for this reason.

That was a few years ago, though, and I know the way the HRC Index is calculated has evolved. Fannie Mae is still getting 100 on the Index, but I don't know what causes they've supported (or not) this year.

Posted by Dana Rudolph on 02/17/2009 @ 10:52AM PT
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There are also a lot of problems with acceptance of transpeople, and that needs to be measured.As for SSM, first of all, I guess you can/should use that term here but I have been using EQUAL (CIVIL) MARRIAGE Rights this year... and am close to changing that to FULL EQUAL FAMILY RIGHTS for all. As this encompasses, workplace, insurance, ownership, inheritancee, adoption etc. I think we need to move into FULL CIVIL RIGHTS mode in STONEWALL 2.0 not tiptoe and kowtow to beg for dribs and drabs of favors.
e.g. I am FIGHTING OUT LOUD... you know it was Waymon Hudsons banner that said that that spooked me into realizing that I, at least, had been fearully whispering just like others had...and after NOV 4 I think we all realize that is NOT EFFECTIVE.
Now that we possibly have a compassionate administration(which has so far NOT RESPONDED in anyway to HRC's Blueprint of changes he could make without needing legislative backing)...we need to keep open and fighting for them to make REAL their promises... no more being thrown UNDER ANY BUSES.
Sorry, Michael you pushed my button, as you can see.

Posted by Lee Dorsey on 02/17/2009 @ 11:12AM PT
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While the State of the Workplace report is technically separate from HRC's Corporate Equality Index (CEI), it does help demonstrate the difference efforts like the CEI and the broader workof LGBT rights advocates are making in corporate policies.

Another gap that's grown up since the establishment of the Corporate Equality Index exists around eliminating the exclusion of much-needed healthcare benefits for transgender workers in corporate healthcare plans. The most recent CEI, released last fall, took the interim step of highlighting businesses whose insurance plans covered most medically necessary treatments. Forty-nine businesses submited sufficient documentation to be highlighted in this way. This step will hopefully help prepare businesses for the next evolution of the CEI criteria, to be announced soon.

Posted by Allyson Robinson on 02/17/2009 @ 11:30AM PT
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It's good to hear that a large majority of companies have sexual orientation anti-discrimination policies. In addition, I believe that every company has to have this type of anti-discrimination policy. With only 60 out of 100 companies having gender identity protections, I also believe that every company has to have this policy. There should also be more progress towards providing domestic partnership benefits because only 57% out of 500 companies do. Finally, I approve of the companies that have spoken out against Propistion 8.

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 02/17/2009 @ 01:41PM PT
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Author

Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.