Goldman Sachs (GS) and MetLife (MET) will publicly disclose the race and gender of their U.S. work force across major job categories, including senior management, under an agreement with New York City Comptroller John C. Liu and the New York City Pension Funds.
In recent months, the comptroller and the pension funds have asked several major financial services and advertising firms to make their workforce demographics publicly available as part of an ongoing effort to expand opportunities for management-level jobs at the firms to women and minorities.
Federal law currently requires companies with 100 or more employees to annually submit an Employer Information EEO-1 survey, which is used to provide federal agencies with potential indications of discrimination to support civil rights enforcement.
Goldman Sachs will disclose the data in its Environmental, Social and Governance Report to be posted on its website in June, while MetLife will publish the data to the relevant page of its website later this spring, the comptroller said in a release.
"We believe that Goldman has made significant strides on improving the diversity of our work force, and we are committed to doing even better going forward," said Global Head of Corporate Communications at Goldman Sachs Jake Siewert in the release.
Frans Hijkoop, MetLife executive vice president of human resources, said, "A diverse and inclusive work force has been an ongoing focus for MetLife, and we have made steady progress over the years."
The latest agreements mean the seven largest bank holding companies in the U.S. will disclose the composition of their domestic workforce. The comptroller's office said it also had preliminary discussions with insurance giant American International Group Inc. (AIG), which has committed to follow-up discussions.
The comptroller's office said it has faced greater resistance from the advertising industry. Comptroller Liu initially made the disclosure request in a letter to four advertising firms: Interpublic Group Of Cos. (IPG), Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC), Publicis Groupe S.A. (PUBGY) and WPP PLC (WPPGY).
