A+ Grade on Corporate Equality for American Express

October 02, 2006

American Express scored 100 percent on a recent report card from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation on corporate America's treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) employees.

The report card -- the Corporate Equality Index -- rates Fortune 1000 and other major companies on a scale from 0 to 100 percent on several key indicators, including health and retirement benefits for domestic partners, leave policies for same-sex families, provide diversity training and offer GLBT employee groups. 138 companies received an A+ this year, up tenfold from when the survey began in 2002.

"I am incredibly encouraged and optimistic about the findings in this report," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "Companies are not only working to improve their scores, they are actively competing to be ranked the most inclusive and fair-minded in their industry."

In 2002, the first year of the index, only 13 companies earned a perfect rating.
Since then, drastic improvements have been made in the professional lives of GLBT employees -- for instance, since last year’s survey, 75 percent more companies established non-discrimination policies for transgender employees and 35 percent more companies extended some form of medical coverage to employees' domestic partners.

Other companies that received ratings of 100 percent include Apple Computer, AT&T, Bank of America, IBM, Google, Coca-Cola and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.