Trillium Successfully Withdraws Minimum Wage Shareholder Proposal at Panera Bread
APRIL 26, 2016: Trillium Asset Management (Trillium) is pleased to announce the successful withdrawal of our shareholder proposal at Panera Bread (NYSE: PNRA), following a commitment from the company to conduct a review of employee benefits, compensation and wages.
The shareholder proposal, which was co-filed by Calvert Investments and Dominican Sisters of Houston, asked the company to address the national debate about minimum wage reform.
Income inequality is recognized as an economy-wide problem with a dampening effect on U.S. economic growth. Until the early 1980s, an annual minimum-wage income – after adjusting for inflation – was above the poverty line for a family of two. Today, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, yields an annual income of $15,080, well below the federal poverty line for families.
Specifically, Panera will:
- Engage leading Non-government Organizations, academics and others to inform Panera comp/benefits strategy.
- Conduct Panera associate research that gets at the key and most impactful levers for retail recruitment and retention.
- Share the findings and any policy and associated benefit changes as part of Panera’s 2016 sustainability report, which will be published in 2017.
Panera used a similar process as it developed its Food Policy, and subsequent commitments concerning clean food and animal welfare.
Trillium commends Panera for taking this opportunity to review opportunities to improve its human capital management and share those findings with its employees and investors.
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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.
