NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, January 15, 2018

Citigroup and Arjuna Capital disclosed today that Citi is taking steps to provide gender and ethnicity wage data and commit to closing the gap, making it the first U.S. bank to respond to shareholder concerns. In response to Citi’s steps, Arjuna Capital withdrew its gender pay shareholder proposal on Monday, January 15, 2018.

Citi’s announcement represents a major shift for U.S. banks and credit card companies, since no financial services company so far targeted by shareholders for gender pay has taken such action.

Bank of America, MasterCard, American Express, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Citi all rejected proposals in 2017 asking for detailed reports on the percentage pay gap between male and female employees across race and ethnicity, including base, bonus and equity compensation, policies to address that gap, the methodology used, and quantitative reduction targets.

To date, Citi is the first bank targeted to respond with quantitative reporting.

Photo courtesy of frankieleon.