Diversity data reporting by the largest publicly traded U.S. companies is improving, but the quality of that data is not where it should be, according to a report released Friday by advocacy group JUST Capital.
The report found that as of September, 55% of Russell 1000 companies disclose some type of racial and ethnic workforce data, up from 32% in January 2021.
Yet when it comes to the "gold standard" for demographic data reporting — intersectional data that comes from EEO-1 reports filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — only 11% of the companies disclose it, the report said. Employers with at least 100 employees are required to file an EEO-1 Report each year but do not have to publicly release it.
By industry, technology companies were most likely to use the preferred reporting, but the financial industry improved in 2021, with 22 companies using it, up from nine.
Ashley Marchand Orme, director of corporate equity for JUST Capital, said in a statement accompanying the report that recent market analysis shows that companies disclosing EEO-1 reports outperformed their Russell 1000 peers in the stock market by 2.4% in 2021.
