Target 1.3: Social protection systems for all
Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Social protection is a public system financed by governments. The ILO reports that 52.4 percent of the world's population is covered by at least one benefit, with large disparities across income groups. There is, however, a documented corporate political-influence channel. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart spent more than 200 million dollars on California's Proposition 22 to keep drivers outside employee status and the employer-funded protections that come with it. Owners of platform, retail and staffing companies can press on worker classification, benefit contributions and lobbying disclosure. That lever is helpful at the margin though far from decisive. Governments must build and finance the systems themselves.
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
4 campaigns on record
Asked TJX to adopt and publicly disclose a policy letting all employees, part-time and full-time, accrue paid sick leave usable after a reasonable probationary period, with no expiration date or pandemic-only condition.
Result: 22.29% of votes were in favor at the June 6, 2023 annual meeting; the proposal did not pass.
We found no documented change to TJX's sick leave policy following this vote.
Paid sick leave at TJX COMPANIES, INC., PRI Collaboration Platform
Asked each retailer to make the paid sick leave benefit it had offered during the pandemic a permanent policy for all employees.
Result: CVS Health asked the SEC for permission to leave the proposal off its ballot. The sources reviewed did not confirm that Target, Kroger, or TJX took similar action.
We found no documented company in this group that adopted a permanent paid sick leave policy specifically attributed to this campaign in the sources reviewed.
Activist investors push retailers to strengthen sick leave policies, Axios
Asked Amazon's board to establish paid sick leave for all employees, arguing the company could afford it.
Result: Amazon reported that shareholders voted against every resolution on the ballot at its May 25, 2022 annual meeting. The sources reviewed did not include the exact vote percentage for this specific proposal.
We found no documented company-wide paid sick leave policy adopted by Amazon that any source attributes to this proposal.
Asked each company's board to report on the feasibility of making paid sick leave a standard employee benefit beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
With As You Sow, CtW Investment Group, ICCR members
Result: Filed in December 2020 for the 2021 proxy season at seven companies. The sources reviewed did not confirm individual vote outcomes.
We found no documented company in this group that adopted permanent paid sick leave specifically attributed to this campaign in the sources reviewed.
As Covid Spikes, Investors Press for Paid Sick Leave for Frontline Retail and Food Workers, ICCR
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.