2025 Proxy Voting for Equity

The investment community increasingly recognizes inequality as a systemic risk that harms the economy, the capital markets, and long-term and sustainable value creation. In the 2025 proxy season, fiduciaries will cast votes on a range of proposals that seek to mitigate the risks associated with inequality and systemic racism. For more on proxy voting related to inequality and systemic racism, see Majority Action’s Equity in the Boardroom 2024.

Majority Action will update this list as proxy statements are released and proposals make their way through the no-action and/or settlement process.

Note: These vote guides are best viewed on a desktop or laptop and not on a mobile device.

CEO Pay Ratio PROPOSALS

Exorbitant CEO pay and high levels of intra-firm inequality are an important driver of income inequality. Between 1978 and 2023, realized CEO compensation increased 1,085%, while worker compensation increased just 24%. Growth in CEO pay has also far outpaced shareholder returns over the past thirty years. Large pay disparities between executives and workers damage long-term shareholder value by signaling a “winner-take-all” philosophy, contributing to human capital management risk, and reducing reinvestment of corporate profits into value-creating initiatives.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires that publicly traded companies disclose the ratio of CEO compensation to the median compensation compensation of their employees. Management expert Peter Drucker famously argued that the ideal CEO pay ratio is 20:1, and that exceeding this threshold would foster employee resentment and impact worker morale. Yet in 2023, the median CEO pay ratio for S&P 500 companies was 196:1 — with only 9 companies reporting ratios less than 20:1. Intra-firm inequality is especially high in the consumer discretionary and consumer staples sectors, where the median CEO pay ratio is 426:1 and 319:1, respectively

Majority Action recommends that investors vote against say-on-pay proposals at S&P 500 companies where the CEO pay ratio is grossly out-of-step with the rest of the Index, as defined by the IQR method of identifying outliers. The companies below all report a CEO pay ratio above 607:1. 

* Indicates 2023 statistics. These will be updated to reflect 2024 statistics as proxy statements are released.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION & COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROPOSALS

Freedom of association and collective bargaining play a critical role in addressing inequality and systemic racism. Labor unions help to reduce entrenched disparities in wages, health, and financial security by promoting egalitarian compensation practices, improving working conditions, and generating spillover effects that raise standards for non-union workers. Supporting workers’ right to organize is also aligned with enhancing firm performance and long-term shareholder value. Unions improve employee retention, increase productivity, decrease turnover, and enable companies to better weather economic shocks. 

WORKER SAFETY PROPOSALS

Workplace injury and illness are a significant, if underacknowledged, contributor to health disparities and socioeconomic inequality. Workplace safety incidents have deleterious effects on income and labor force participation, making it difficult for workers to achieve and maintain financial security. Unsafe working conditions also exacerbate existing labor market inequalities, as the most dangerous jobs are held by low-wage workers who are disproportionately undocumented, immigrants, and people of color. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that workplace injuries cost businesses billions annually in medical expenses, legal fees, and lost productivity.

RACIAL & GENDER EQUITY IN THE WORKPLACE PROPOSALS

Workplace racial and gender inequities play a foundational role in driving socio-economic and health inequalities. Occupational segregation, barriers to education, and discriminatory employment practices have locked people of color into lower paying, more dangerous, and more precarious jobs, institutionalizing racial disparities in wages, benefits, working conditions, and upward mobility. Today, Black women only earn 66.5 cents for every dollar earned by a white man, while Latina women earn only 57.8 cents. Recent legal decisions, firings of EEOC commissioners, closures of federal civil rights offices, and repeals of federal civil rights laws make it easier for harmful corporate actors to get away with discriminatory practices. Discriminatory pay practices, inequitable promotion pathways, and failure to address workplace harassment contribute to turnover, litigation, and decreased productivity—all of which undermine shareholder value. Shareholder proposals calling for enhanced pay gap disclosures, racial equity audits, and comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion practices offer investors a tool to mitigate these risks. 

FUTURE OF WORK PROPOSALS

The future of work is facing major disruptions, chief among them the transition to a net-zero economy and technological innovation in the form of artificial intelligence (AI). The transition to net zero is predicted to displace 187 million jobs and create 202 million jobs by 2050.  Researchers at OpenAI and the University of Pennsylvania estimate that approximately 80% of U.S. workers could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of large-language models. These trends in the future of work have the potential to either alleviate or exacerbate inequality and systemic racism. To mitigate inequality and ensure that the gains of the energy transition and artificial intelligence are equitably distributed, companies must undertake these developments in ways that enhance rather than erode job quality, economic opportunity, operational resilience, and sustainable value creation.