New York City Retirement Systems has negotiated agreements with five companies that will provide more information on identifying and eliminating gender discrimination among employees, Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, announced Tuesday.
In return, the New York City pension system has withdrawn shareholder resolutions that would have been introduced at the companies' annual meetings. Mr. Stringer is the fiduciary for the five pension funds within the New York City system, which had assets $217.9 billion in assets as of Jan. 31, according to the latest available data.
The companies are Assurant Inc., Cerner Corp., The Cooper Cos. Inc., HCA Healthcare Inc. and Loews Corp. The pension system filed shareholder resolutions between September 2019 and January 2020 and subsequently withdrew them between January and March.
"Gender pay equity disclosures should be market standard, and I applaud these companies for taking a stand by committing to doing their part to close the pay gap, Mr. Stringer said in a news release.
"We still have more work to do, and I look forward to working with more companies in the near future to create equal opportunities for the advancement of women," he added.
Cerner is preparing a pay equity analysis review to be offered in its 2020 proxy statement; Loews will disclose pay equity information in its 2020 sustainability report; and Cooper is providing pay information on its website, the news release said.
HCA Healthcare will publish a "gender pay equity statement in its Impact Report and/or on its website and have further discussions on disclosure," the news release said. Assurant "is undertaking steps to assess and provide enhanced disclosure of gender pay equity."
Further details were not available.
