For the 16th year in a row, Levi Strauss & Co. scored a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. Each year, the HRC evaluates companies based on their LGBTQ-related policies and practices, including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive health care benefits, competency programs, and public engagement with the LGBTQ community.
“The top-scoring companies on this year’s CEI are not only establishing policies that affirm and include employees here in the United States, they are applying these policies to their global operations and impacting millions of people beyond our shores,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
LS&Co. has an extensive history supporting the LGBTQ community. We were the first Fortune 500 company to extend health benefits to unmarried domestic partners more than 20 years ago, and the only California business in 2007 to file an amicus brief with the California Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage.
“We take pride in our company’s long history of supporting LGBTQ employees long before it was socially or politically acceptable,” said Jake Little, co-chair of LS&Co.’s LGBTQ employee resource group. “Our 16th consecutive perfect score on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index demonstrates our deep commitment to equality for all LGBTQ employees and consumers.”
And just last month, we gave a $25,000 grant to support the HRC Foundation Youth Ambassador Program which helps amplify the voices of teens and young adults, providing them with the leadership skills to engage in advocacy on the most pressing concerns LGBTQ youth face.
The HRC Youth Ambassadors will also serve as powerful voices to provide education around the Equality Act, a bill that Levi Strauss & Co. has proudly supported since the bill’s introduction in 2015. This month, the Equality Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and there are now 168 companies that are part of the Business Coalition for the Equality Act.
“Time and again, leading American businesses have shown that protecting their employees and customers from discrimination isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s also good for business,” Chad said.
HRC is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, and we are proud to be recognized for our dedication to the community.
