Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

HRC scores IL companies in 2016 LGBT Corporate Equality Index, P@W reacts
2015-11-19

This article shared 5453 times since Thu Nov 19, 2015
facebook twitter google +1 reddit email


The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has released the 2016 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), an annual report assessing LGBT inclusion in major companies and law firms across the nation—including 90 in Illinois.

In total, 851 companies were officially rated in the 2016 CEI, up from 781 in the 2015 report. The average score for companies and law firms based in Illinois is 90 percent, with 41 earning 100 percent.

The CEI rates companies and top law firms on detailed criteria falling under five broad categories. They are non-discrimination policies; employment benefits; demonstration of organizational competency and accountability around LGBT diversity and inclusion; public commitment to LGBT equality; and responsible citizenship.

The Illinois companies earning perfect scores include A.T. Kearney Inc., AbbVie Inc., Aon Corp., Astellas Pharma US Inc., Baker & McKenzie LLP, Barilla America Inc., Baxter International Inc., Boeing Co., Chapman and Cutler LLP, CNA Insurance, Discover Financial Services, Exelon Corp., Faegre Baker Daniels, Groupon Inc., HERE North America LLC, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Huron Consulting Group Inc., Hyatt Hotels Corp., Jenner & Block LLP, JLL, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Kraft Foods Group Inc.

They also include Leo Burnett Company Inc., Mayer Brown LLP, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, McDonald's Corp., MillerCoors LLC, Navigant Consulting Inc., Northern Trust Corp., Orbitz Worldwide Inc., Schiff Hardin LLP, Sears Holdings Corp., Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Sidley Austin LLP, Starcom MediaVest Group, State Farm Group, United Airlines, W.W. Grainger Inc., Walgreen Co. and Winston & Strawn LLP.

Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc. and Navistar International Corp. were at the bottom of the Illinois list, with each company earning a score of 30 percent.

"Corporate America has long been a leader on LGBT equality, from advocating for marriage equality to expanding essential benefits to transgender employees," said HRC President Chad Griffin. "But this year, many leading U.S. companies have broken new ground by expanding explicit non-discrimination protections to their LGBT workers around the globe. They've shown the world that LGBT equality isn't an issue that stops at our own borders, but extends internationally." However, Griffin added there is much work left to be done in places and in companies where LGBT workers still face significant obstacles.

Pride at Work issued a statement that was disparaging of the CEI. Executive Director Jerame Davis said, "We are disappointed that the HRC Corporate Equality Index (CEI) rewards big corporations for questionable employment practices without taking into consideration the lived experiences of the LGBTQ working people in those corporations.

"It is our position that any company that takes action to stall, stymie, or otherwise undermine the efforts of their workers to unionize is preventing LGBTQ working people from achieving the full non-discrimination protections federal—and most state—law currently doesn't provide. LGBTQ working people receive far more protection under an inclusive union contract than they do under any existing state law."

The full report, including a searchable employer database, is available online at www.hrc.org/cei .

From HRC:

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign Foundation ( HRC ), the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) civil rights organization, today released the 2016 Corporate Equality Index, an annual report assessing LGBT inclusion in major companies and law firms across the nation, including 90 in Illinois.

Corporate America, propelled by HRC and its foundation's annual Corporate Equality Index ( CEI ), has led the way on LGBT inclusion for more than a decade. As the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality, the 2016 CEI unveiled that a record 407 businesses — spanning nearly every industry and geography — earned a top score of 100 percent and the coveted distinction of "Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality."

That record number of perfect scores was achieved despite demanding new criteria requiring that companies with global operations extend non-discrimination protections for their LGBT workers worldwide.

In total, 851 companies were officially rated in the 2016 CEI, up from 781 in the 2015 report. The report also unofficially rated 176 Fortune 500 companies, which have yet to respond to the CEI survey about their LGBT policies and practices. The average score for companies and law firms based in Illinois is 90 percent. Of the 90 companies ranked, 41 earned 100 percent, 7 earned 90 percent or above, and 5 earned 80 percent or above.

Employer Name 2015 CEI Rating

A.T. Kearney Inc. 100

AbbVie Inc. 100

Aon Corp. 100

Astellas Pharma US Inc. 100

Baker & McKenzie LLP 100

Barilla America Inc. 100

Baxter International Inc. 100

Boeing Co. 100

Chapman and Cutler LLP 100

CNA Insurance 100

Discover Financial Services 100

Exelon Corp. 100

Faegre Baker Daniels 100

Groupon Inc. 100

HERE North America LLC 100

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP 100

Huron Consulting Group Inc. 100

Hyatt Hotels Corp. 100

Jenner & Block LLP 100

JLL 100

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP 100

Kirkland & Ellis LLP 100

Kraft Foods Group Inc. 100

Leo Burnett Company Inc. 100

Mayer Brown LLP 100

McDermott Will & Emery LLP 100

McDonald's Corp. 100

MillerCoors LLC 100

Navigant Consulting Inc. 100

Northern Trust Corp. 100

Orbitz Worldwide Inc. 100

Schiff Hardin LLP 100

Sears Holdings Corp. 100

Seyfarth Shaw LLP 100

Sidley Austin LLP 100

Starcom MediaVest Group 100

State Farm Group 100

United Airlines 100

W.W. Grainger Inc. 100

Walgreen Co. 100

Winston & Strawn LLP 100

Health Care Service Corp. 95

BMO Bankcorp Inc. 90

Caterpillar Inc. 90

CDW Corp. 90

Crate and Barrel / CB2 90

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago 90

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. 90

Allstate Corp., The 85

Grant Thornton LLP 85

Morningstar Inc. 85

True Value Co. 85

Motorola Solutions Inc. 80

Abbott Laboratories 75

Deere & Co. 75

US Foods Inc. 75

Zurich North America 75

CME Group Inc. 70

Hospira Inc. 65

USG Corp. 65

Illinois Tool Works Inc. 60

Perkins + Will Inc. 35

Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP 35

Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc. 30

Navistar International Corp. 30

"Corporate America has long been a leader on LGBT equality, from advocating for marriage equality to expanding essential benefits to transgender employees," said HRC President Chad Griffin. "But this year, many leading U.S. companies have broken new ground by expanding explicit non-discrimination protections to their LGBT workers around the globe. They've shown the world that LGBT equality isn't an issue that stops at our own borders, but extends internationally."

Despite this progress and a new global commitment, there is much work left to be done in places and in companies where LGBT workers still face significant obstacles.

"While support for LGBT workers is growing in the U.S. and around the world, too many companies still fail to guarantee basic, vital workplace protections that allow employees to bring their full selves to work," Griffin said. "That continues to create barriers for LGBT people, especially for transgender people, who face high rates of unemployment and discrimination in hiring. These companies should look to the example set by global corporate leaders as a path forward to achieving LGBT equality for all workers, no matter where they live."

Key national findings contained in the 2016 CEI:

407 companies earned a 100 percent in the 2015 CEI, up from 366 in the 2015 report.

511 companies participating in this year's CEI now offer transgender workers at least one health care plan that has transgender-inclusive coverage. That's a 150 percent increase since 2012, when the CEI first included trans-inclusive health care as a requisite for companies to receive a perfect score;

Gender identity is now part of non-discrimination policies at 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies, up from just 3 percent in 2002;

More than 330 major employers have adopted supportive inclusion guidelines for transgender workers who are transitioning.

And 176 Fortune 500 companies were given unofficial scores based on publicly available information

Just as the CEI has successfully steered the country's top corporations, law firms and their influential leaders toward breaking new ground in workplace equality — from enacting LGBT non-discrimination policies to extending same-sex partner benefits — it has also helped companies move toward full inclusion for their transgender employees.

The CEI rates companies and top law firms on detailed criteria falling under five broad categories:

Non-discrimination policies

Employment benefits

Demonstrated organizational competency and accountability around LGBT diversity and inclusion

Public commitment to LGBT equality

Responsible citizenship

The full report, including a searchable employer database is available online at www.hrc.org/cei.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

Press release: Pride at Work reacts to release of HRC's 2016 CEI

Washington —The following is a statement from Pride at Work Executive Director Jerame Davis reacting to the release of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2016 Corporate Equality Index.

"We are disappointed that the HRC Corporate Equality Index ( CEI ) rewards big corporations for questionable employment practices without taking into consideration the lived experiences of the LGBTQ working people in those corporations. It is our position that any company that takes action to stall, stymie, or otherwise undermine the efforts of their workers to unionize is preventing LGBTQ working people from achieving the full non-discrimination protections federal — and most state - law currently doesn't provide. LGBTQ working people receive far more protection under an inclusive union contract than they do under any existing state law.

"We believe the CEI should take the lived experience of the workers who are subject to the policies these companies are being lauded for holding into consideration when scoring these companies and we've offered to help HRC in those efforts in every way we can. The gap between a policy's existence and its implementation is vast, which is one of the many reasons unions exist — to ensure a company adopts and adheres to appropriate labor policies and practices.

"Companies like Walmart and T-Mobile continue to receive high scores on the HRC CEI despite their treatment of workers overall and, in the specific case of Walmart, the treatment of LGBTQ workers. Despite multiple LGBTQ discrimination lawsuits against the company, many other documented incidents of anti-LGBTQ bias, and our own call for the company's score to be suspended, Walmart's rating remains inconceivably high.

"Our offer to assist HRC in making the CEI more reflective of the real world environment of these workplaces remains intact."

For more information on Pride at Work's position, please read the resolution passed by our members at our convention in August addressing the flaws of HRC's Corporate Equality Index.

Pride At Work is a nonprofit organization and an officially recognized constituency group of the AFL-CIO ( American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations. ) We organize mutual support between the organized Labor Movement and the LGBT Community for social and economic justice. In addition to national Pride at Work, more than 20 Chapters organize at the state and local level around the country.


This article shared 5453 times since Thu Nov 19, 2015
facebook twitter google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill
2024-03-27
On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness
2024-03-26
City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season—which will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...


Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event
2024-03-25
Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

Chicago alder proposes renaming street after Obama
2024-03-22
Openly gay Black Chicago Ald. Lamont Robinson has proposed renaming Columbus Drive after former U.S. President and city resident Barack Obama, media outlets noted. The street stretches through the Loop from East Grand Avenue to DuSable ...


Gay News

Congressional Equality Caucus on FY24 bills passing the house
2024-03-22
--From a press release - WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), released the following statement after the House successfully passed the final funding bills for Fiscal Year ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds
2024-03-21
It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Va. marriage bill, AARP, online counseling, Idaho items, late activist
2024-03-21
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bills protecting same-sex marriages at a state level, surprising some, WRIC reported. The bills—passed out of both chambers along mostly party lines—will require clerks ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ candidates Marcelino Garcia, Precious Brady Davis win primary elections to keep MWRD seats
2024-03-21
Marcelino Garcia and Precious Brady-Davis, the two openly LGBTQ+ incumbents in the race to keep their seats on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), won their primary elections and will move on to the general this ...


Gay News

Small LGBTQ+ candidate pool nevertheless scores some important victories March 19
2024-03-20
Relatively few openly LGBTQ+ candidates were running in the March 19 Illinois Primary Election. But there were some significant contests in play at the local, state and federal levels. Openly gay Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) ...


Gay News

Gay Irish prime minister to step down
2024-03-20
In a surprise move, openly gay Irish Prime Minister (or Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar has announced his resignation, citing "personal and political, but mainly political reasons," according to CNN. Varadkar said he felt he was no longer ...


Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course
2024-03-18
Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools
2024-03-15
In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

PASSAGES: Former Chicago Commission on Human Relations chair Clarence Wood
2024-03-13
LGBTQ ally and former Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) Chair and Commissioner Clarence N. Wood died March 5. He was 83. Wood was born April 14, 1940, in Alabama. While primarily raised in Alabama, Wood ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.