Information for Citigroup Shareholders Regarding our Gender Pay Disparity Shareholder Proposal
APRIL 18, 2016: Trillium Asset Management has published a letter to shareholders of Citigroup (NYSE: C) urging them to vote in favor of our Gender Pay Disparity proposal, which appears as item #6 on the company’s 2016 proxy card.
The financial services sector is routinely found to have one of the widest gaps in pay by gender relative to other parts of the economy. Despite women making up nearly one third of the financial services workforce, on average women earn significantly less than their male colleagues.
Shareholders are requesting that:
“…Citigroup prepare a report by September 2016, omitting proprietary information and prepared at reasonable cost demonstrating the company does not have a gender pay gap.”
The persistence of gender pay disparity is evident through the numerous lawsuits brought at major financial services firms. Companies including Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and even Citigroup, have all settled gender discrimination lawsuits ranging from $32 – $46 million. These lawsuits are costly to the company and costly to shareholders.
Earlier this year, Citigroup submitted a “Statement of Intent to Exclude” notice with the SEC on the grounds that Trillium’s proposal was “vague” and investors were attempting to “micromanage the company’s employment practices” by asking for non-proprietary gender pay information. The SEC rejected Citigroup’s assertion and shareholders will vote on the proposal at the company’s annual meeting on April 26th.
You can read more about our rationale for a “Yes” vote by clicking here.
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For more information: Randy Rice, Trillium Asset Management, rrice@trilliuminvest.com, 617-515-6889
Important disclosure: The information provided in this material should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell the security mentioned. It should not be assumed that investments in such security has been or will be profitable. To the extent a specific security is mentioned, it was selected by the authors on an objective basis to illustrate views expressed in the commentary and it does not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for advisory clients. The information contained herein has been prepared from sources believed reliable but is not guaranteed as to its timeliness or accuracy, and is not a complete summary or statement of all available data. This piece is for informational purposes and should not be construed as a research report.
