A majority of Kroger Co. investors on Thursday approved a shareholder resolution calling for the supermarket giant to produce a report on racial and gender pay equity for its hundreds of thousands of employees.
In the proposal, the filers noted that women and people of color were underrepresented in leadership roles at Kroger KR, +0.15%. They also said Thursday that a report last year “found that African American, Latinx and Native American workers at Kroger experience economic insecurity at higher levels than Kroger workers who are white.”
In its latest annual report, Kroger — the nation’s largest grocery chain behind Walmart Inc. WMT, -0.19% — said it had raised the average hourly rate of pay for its employees by more than 6% last year, to more than $18.
But last year’s union-commissioned report by the Economic Roundtable, based on a survey of more than 10,000 Kroger workers around the country, found that although 86% of the company’s workers say their jobs at Kroger are their only source of income, many of them would like more hours.
That report, which found that nearly two-thirds of Kroger workers said they did not earn enough for their basic monthly expenses and that more than two-thirds are food-insecure, said: “Kroger’s current low-wage, part-time workforce strategy relies on poorly-paid, part-time workers with constantly changing schedules.”
A Kroger spokesperson did not respond to comment about the report.
Arjuna Capital, the investment management firm that led the filing of the proposal, expressed concern Thursday that Kroger Chief Executive Rodney McMullen did not commit to responding to the requests submitted in the proposal at the annual general meeting. Instead, he reiterated the board’s reasons for opposing the resolution, including that the company has been performing an annual pay-equity analysis since 2016, and that many Kroger employees are covered by collective-bargaining agreements. Arjuna said more than 30% of Kroger employees are not covered by such agreements.
Faye Guenther, the president of United Food and Commercial Workers 3000, which supported the resolution, said in a statement that Kroger is “in the midst of their attempt to push forward on a proposed mega-merger of unprecedented size with Albertsons,” which would create a chain with more than 700,000 employees.
“These companies need to be clear about how they treat workers, and workers and the communities we live in all have a right to know,” Guenther said.
From the archives (May 2023): Kroger-Albertsons merger could cost grocery-store workers millions in lost wages, report says
Kroger announced at the company’s annual general meeting that a preliminary tally showed that the proposal received 51% of shares voted. A Kroger spokesperson said Thursday that the company will review the final voting results, which must be filed within four business days, and “make further disclosures as appropriate.”
