The Human Rights Campaign released its second annual Corporate Equality Index, which measures how the largest U.S. companies treat their GLBT employees and consumers. This year's report showed 21 major U.S. corporations earned 100% ratings. That number is almost twice as many as in 2002, when 11 major companies earned a perfect score.
'Corporate America continues to be a leader in the quest for GLBT civil rights,' said HRC Education Director Kim I. Mills, who oversees HRC WorkNet.
The 21 companies that scored 100% are: Aetna Inc.; American Airlines (AMR Corp.); Apple Computer Inc.; Avaya Inc.; Bank One Corp.; Capital One Financial Corp.; Eastman Kodak Co.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; IBM Corp.; Intel Corp.; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.; Levi Strauss & Co.; Lucent Technologies Inc.; MetLife Inc.; NCR Corp.; Nike Inc.; PG&E Corp.; Prudential Financial Inc.; S.C. Johnson; and Xerox Corp.
No companies received a score of zero in 2003. The five lowest-scoring companies, all of which rated 14%, were: Aramark Corp.; Domino's Inc.; ExxonMobil Corp.; Meijer Inc.; and National Gypsum.
Lockheed Martin Corp. was the most-improved company in the analysis, going from zero in 2002 to 71% in 2003. Lockheed, which had been the target of a shareholder resolution asking it to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy, did so—and also added domestic-partner benefits.
The analysis covers 250 companies from either the Fortune 500 or the Forbes 200 largest privately held businesses for which the HRC Foundation was able to gather data.
In 2002, the report rated 217 Fortune- and Forbes-ranked companies. The 2003 HRC Corporate Equality Index rated companies on a scale of 0 percent to 100 on seven factors.
Eighty companies improved their score. The two other companies that had scored zeroes in the 2002 report also improved their ratings in 2003. Emerson Electric Co. moved up to 29%. Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores/CBRL Group Inc. also moved up to 29%.
See www.hrc.org/worknet/cei/ .
