Target 1.2: Halve poverty by national definitions
By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
National-definition poverty in richer economies is heavily shaped by wages and job quality at large employers in retail, logistics and gig platforms. Corporate conduct on pay, scheduling and benefits is therefore a real but partial lever. The World Bank identifies labor income as the main pathway out of poverty alongside public services. Investors have used the proxy at Amazon and Walmart. The 2024 Amazon proposals covered pay gaps, warehouse conditions and freedom of association. The 2024 Walmart proposals covered a living wage policy, workplace safety and a racial equity audit. Social transfers, housing and education policy do most of the work. Owners therefore help at the margin rather than sitting on the critical path.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024: Pathways Out of the Polycrisis, World Bank Group, 2024-10-15
- The 2024 Amazon Proposals, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2024-05-20
- In Advance of Walmart's 2024 Shareholder Meeting, Investors Call on the Company to Address Worker Safety and Racial Inequity, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2024-06-03
2 campaigns on record
Asked Dollar Tree's board to produce a report on wages and inequality, after finding that median associate pay ($13,490 a year) fell below the federal poverty threshold for a single person.
Result: Put to a vote at the June 13, 2023 annual meeting; Dollar Tree's board recommended shareholders vote against it. We could not confirm the exact vote count in the sources reviewed.
We found no documented change directly attributed to this proposal. Retail TouchPoints reported that Dollar Tree separately announced plans to raise average wages by about $2 an hour around the same period, but the source does not establish that this increase was a response to the shareholder proposal.
Asked the company to address a starting wage described as more than 32% below a 2019 calculation of a living wage, on the argument that poverty wages impose costs (public-assistance reliance, turnover, lower consumer spending) that diversified shareholders ultimately bear.
Result: Vote percentage not confirmed in the sources retrieved for this research. Filed under SEC Rule 14a-8.
we found no documented change confirmed in the sources retrieved.
Cost Externalization: A Bad Trade for Diversified Shareholders, Proxy Preview
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.