Income and Work

Investors and advocates called on McDonald's to end subminimum wages for tipped workers and to treat payment of a living wage as a human right.

With One Fair Wage (advocacy partner, not an investor filer)

Result: This was an investor and advocacy engagement, not a proxy shareholder vote; no vote result applies.

McDonald's left the National Restaurant Association. ICCR and other observers linked the departure to McDonald's public criticism of the association's subminimum-wage advocacy, though neither organization confirmed that this was the specific cause.

Shareholders Commend McDonald's Commitment to End Subminimum Wages as Model for Restaurant Industry, ICCR

Asked Amazon's board to commission an independent third-party assessment of how the company's use of artificial intelligence, including algorithmic productivity quotas, affects the human rights and safety of Amazon's own workforce, including warehouse workers.

Result: Presented at the May 21, 2025 annual meeting by Isaiah Thomas, an RWDSU organiser and former Amazon warehouse employee, and not approved; every shareholder proposal on that ballot failed. Ten resolutions were filed at Amazon for the season and only five reached the proxy, the rest kept off through the SEC no-action process. Amazon's certified Item 5.07 report lists two AI proposals: an assessment of board structure for oversight of AI, 791,178,046 for and 6,914,111,284 against, and a report on data usage oversight in AI offerings, 829,568,766 for and 6,856,599,378 against. Amazon names no proponents, so which of the two is the AFL-CIO's cannot be read from the filings and no percentage is recorded here.

No change at Amazon attributable to this proposal was found in the sources opened.

At Amazon's Annual Meeting, Investors Continue to Raise Significant Risks to Workers and the Environment, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)

Asked Dollar Tree's board to produce a report on wages and inequality, after finding that median associate pay ($13,490 a year) fell below the federal poverty threshold for a single person.

Result: Put to a vote at the June 13, 2023 annual meeting; Dollar Tree's board recommended shareholders vote against it. We could not confirm the exact vote count in the sources reviewed.

We found no documented change directly attributed to this proposal. Retail TouchPoints reported that Dollar Tree separately announced plans to raise average wages by about $2 an hour around the same period, but the source does not establish that this increase was a response to the shareholder proposal.

Dollar General, Dollar Tree Come Under Activist Investor Fire for Workforce Issues, Retail TouchPoints

Asked Tesla's board to report on whether and how it would eliminate child labor and forced labor, including cobalt mining risk in the Democratic Republic of Congo and concerns about Uyghur forced labor in China, from its supply chain by 2025, and to increase supply-chain transparency.

Result: Per Tesla's own SEC Form 8-K, the proposal received 0 votes for and 2,420,047,519 votes against (100% against). This was a 'floor' proposal not included in Tesla's advance proxy materials or on shareholders' proxy ballots, which is why the recorded 'for' vote was zero.

Despite the zero-vote outcome, CEO Elon Musk publicly committed at the meeting to third-party audits of Tesla's cobalt supply chain ('we will conduct a third-party audit... we'll put a webcam on the mine'). As of a July 2024 Forbes report, the follow-through fell short of that promise: Tesla's main cobalt supplier posted only a single low-resolution monthly satellite photo of the mine rather than live monitoring, and while Tesla said four scheduled (not surprise) audits found no child labor in 2023, an expert said this did not address the risk that cobalt from an estimated 40,000 children working in unregulated artisanal mines gets mixed into the supply chain before reaching Tesla's suppliers.

Tesla Inc. Form 8-K (annual meeting voting results), SEC EDGAR

Asked Nike to publish a report on worker-driven social responsibility and explain why it has not joined binding worker-safety agreements like the Pakistan Accord (which competitors Adidas and Puma have signed), and raised concerns about forced labor and roughly $2.2 million in allegedly unpaid wages owed to about 4,000 garment workers in Cambodia and Thailand.

With a coalition of over 60 investors

Result: Moved by an investor group led by the Domini Impact Equity Fund and voted at Nike's September 10, 2024 annual meeting as Proposal 6, Worker-Driven Social Responsibility. It was not approved: 140,736,818 votes for and 999,936,226 against, with 9,627,068 abstentions and 123,095,933 broker non-votes, which is 12.3 percent of the votes cast for and against. Nike's board recommended a vote against. Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Nike's ninth-largest shareholder, backed the proposal in the week before the meeting.

No change in Nike's supply-chain labour agreements or practices attributable to this campaign was found in the sources opened.

Nike shareholders vote against proposal on workers' rights, Reuters (via Yahoo Finance)

Asked TJX to adopt and publicly disclose a policy letting all employees, part-time and full-time, accrue paid sick leave usable after a reasonable probationary period, with no expiration date or pandemic-only condition.

Result: Not approved at the June 6, 2023 annual meeting, where it was Proposal 7. The certified count was 212,540,477 votes for and 741,089,547 against, with 11,315,069 abstentions and 61,591,217 broker non-votes, which is 22.29 percent of the votes cast for and against and matches the figure the PRI resolution database records. Rothschild & Co Asset Management pre-declared a vote in favour.

No change to TJX's sick leave policy following this vote was found in the sources opened. The same proposal had been put the year before, as Proposal 8 at the 2022 annual meeting, where it drew 327,838,039 for and 642,543,754 against, so support fell between the two years.

Paid sick leave at TJX COMPANIES, INC., PRI Collaboration Platform

Asked the company to address housekeeping starting wages cited at $12.00/hour against a benchmark $20.40/hour living wage, alongside racial-representation gaps in leadership and a large CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio (cited at 346 to 1).

Result: Vote percentage not confirmed in the sources retrieved for this research. Filed under SEC Rule 14a-8.

we found no documented change confirmed in the sources retrieved.

Cost Externalization: A Bad Trade for Diversified Shareholders, Proxy Preview

Asked the company to address a starting wage described as more than 32% below a 2019 calculation of a living wage, on the argument that poverty wages impose costs (public-assistance reliance, turnover, lower consumer spending) that diversified shareholders ultimately bear.

Result: Vote percentage not confirmed in the sources retrieved for this research. Filed under SEC Rule 14a-8.

we found no documented change confirmed in the sources retrieved.

Cost Externalization: A Bad Trade for Diversified Shareholders, Proxy Preview

Asked Amazon to disclose its workforce turnover rates as an indicator of job quality.

Result: Amazon reported that shareholders voted against every proposal on the ballot at its May 25, 2022 annual meeting. The sources reviewed did not include the exact vote percentage for this specific proposal.

We found no documented turnover-rate disclosure published by Amazon that sources attribute to this proposal.

The 2022 Amazon Proposals, ICCR

Asked the board to publish an analysis of what it would take to raise tipped workers' starting pay to the full state or federal minimum wage, with tips on top, rather than relying on the lower tipped minimum wage (the 'tip credit').

With Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica

Result: 12.4% of votes cast were in favor, on a for-and-against basis excluding both broker non-votes and abstentions, at the May 12, 2022 annual meeting; the proposal did not pass. The SEC Form 8-K reports 1,697,217 votes for, 11,951,398 against, 216,418 abstentions and 1,477,256 broker non-votes; including abstentions in the denominator gives 12.2%.

We found no documented change to Dine Brands' tip-credit policy following this vote. Dine Brands' board had opposed the proposal, arguing the tip credit lets servers earn above minimum wage.

Dine Brands Global, Inc. Form 8-K (Item 5.07, voting results), SEC EDGAR

Asked Walmart's board to report on whether the company's starting hourly wages for new associates are consistent with Walmart's own racial-justice commitments.

Result: 13.4% of votes cast were in favor at the June 1, 2022 annual meeting; the proposal did not pass. Filed under SEC Rule 14a-8.

We found no documented change to Walmart's starting-wage policy that any source attributes to this vote. Walmart's CEO cited an average hourly wage above $17 (as of April 2022) in opposing the proposal, not as a result of it.

Walmart Announces 2022 Annual Shareholders' Meeting Voting Results, Business Wire

The proposal asked Activision Blizzard to publish an annual public report on the effectiveness of its efforts to reduce workplace discrimination, harassment, and abuse, including settlement figures and pending case data.

Result: Approved at the June 21, 2022 annual meeting against the board's unanimous recommendation to vote no. The certified count was 379,308,934 votes for and 183,876,515 against, with 35,277,508 abstentions and 49,424,806 broker non-votes, which is 67.4 percent of the votes cast for and against. The proxy advisers Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services both recommended it.

Activision Blizzard said it would carefully consider the proposal in enhancing its future disclosures, and published its first annual Transparency Report in 2023, filing it with the SEC. The report says the Investigations Unit substantiated 36 reported concerns of harassment, discrimination or retaliation across all business units during 2022, involving 37 respondents and 39 corrective actions; its employee-only lines are 29 substantiated out of 114 investigated. The report does not refer to the shareholder proposal.

Activision Blizzard shareholders approve proposal for report on abuse and harassment, CNBC

Asked Amazon's board to commission an independent third-party audit of how productivity quotas and surveillance practices affect injury and turnover rates among warehouse workers.

With three unnamed co-filers, per source

Result: Filed for the 2022 proxy season and announced in December 2021, with Domini Impact Investments as lead proponent of a worker health and safety audit at Amazon. It did not reach the ballot. Amazon's certified Item 5.07 report for the May 25, 2022 annual meeting lists every proposal voted on and none of them is this one; the item with a similar name, a report on worker health and safety differences, was filed by the New York City Comptroller. Whether Domini's proposal was withdrawn or omitted under a no-action ruling is not settled by the documents opened.

No change to Amazon's productivity-quota or warehouse surveillance practices attributable to this proposal was found in the sources opened.

Investors, regulators, Congress focus on companies' treatment of workers, Roll Call

Asked each retailer to make the paid sick leave benefit it had offered during the pandemic a permanent policy for all employees.

With Vancity Investment Management Ltd., Portico Benefit Services

Result: Only the CVS proposal is documented to Trillium, and it reached a vote rather than being kept off the ballot. Trillium, with Vancity Investment Management and co-filer Portico Benefit Services, urged CVS shareholders to vote for Item 7, paid sick leave for all employees, at the May 2022 annual meeting; it was not approved, with 255,627,021 votes for and 719,860,486 against, which is 26.2 percent of the votes cast for and against. No paid sick leave proposal reached the 2022 ballot at Target or at Kroger. One did reach TJX's ballot as Proposal 8 and was not approved, 327,838,039 for and 642,543,754 against, but the exempt solicitation for it names Figure 8 Investment Strategies as the proponent, not Trillium.

No company in this group was found to have adopted a permanent paid sick leave policy attributable to this campaign in the sources opened.

Activist investors push retailers to strengthen sick leave policies, Axios

Asked Amazon's board to establish paid sick leave for all employees, arguing the company could afford it.

Result: Filed for the 2022 proxy season and announced in December 2021, with United Church Funds as lead proponent, asking Amazon to establish paid sick leave for all employees. It did not reach the ballot: Amazon's certified Item 5.07 report for the May 25, 2022 annual meeting lists the fifteen shareholder proposals voted on and no paid sick leave proposal is among them. Whether it was withdrawn or omitted is not settled by the documents opened.

No company-wide paid sick leave policy at Amazon attributable to this proposal was found in the sources opened.

The 2022 Amazon Proposals, ICCR

Asked Amazon's board for an independent examination of the company's policies, practices and products on civil rights, equity, diversity and inclusion, including pay and advancement and the disparate racial impacts on hourly warehouse workers, and how those affect the business.

Result: Sources give slightly different figures for the same vote. The Comptroller's office reports 44.18% support, which it described as a record level of support for an environmental or social shareholder proposal at Amazon at that time. ICCR reports 44% of total shares voted and 55% of independent shareholders' shares in favor. The proposal was refiled for the 2022 proxy season and then withdrawn before that vote.

Amazon agreed to commission an independent racial equity audit led by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. We found no documented publication of the completed audit's findings and no other resulting policy change that sources attribute to this vote.

Shareholders' ESG Proposals Make Significant Gains at Amazon, ICCR

Asked Tyson's board to prepare a report on human rights due diligence, covering whether the company was doing enough on paid sick leave, COVID-19 testing and case counts, workload, and meaningful engagement with workers after over 12,500 workers were infected and dozens died during the pandemic.

With Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes, Congregation of St. Joseph, OH, Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise, Northwest Women Religious Investment Trust, PeaceHealth, Portico Benefit Services (ELCA), Sisters of Bon Secours, Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ, Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province, Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, IA, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Dominican Sisters of Springfield, IL, Sisters of the Humility of Mary, BMO Asset Management

Result: Not approved at the February 11, 2021 annual meeting. The certified count was 168,155,962 votes for and 746,977,377 against, with 1,333,787 abstentions and 26,870,881 broker non-votes, which is 18.4 percent of the votes cast for and against. The Tyson family's supervoting Class B stock carries most of the voting power, and Investor Advocates for Social Justice put support among independent investors, excluding the Tyson Limited Partnership, at 78.7 percent. This was the third year the proposal had been filed at Tyson: in 2020 it drew 14.58 percent overall and 59.68 percent of independent shares. BlackRock and Vanguard voted for it, and Norges Bank and CalSTRS pre-declared support.

Tyson did not address the concerns the proposal raised, withheld preliminary vote results at the meeting and released them on its website on February 17, and gave shareholders no opportunity to ask questions; the meeting lasted under thirty minutes. No policy change at Tyson attributable to this vote was found in the sources opened.

Tyson Dismisses Shareholders' Human Rights Concerns at Annual Meeting, Investor Advocates for Social Justice

Asked each company's board to report on the feasibility of making paid sick leave a standard employee benefit beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

With CtW Investment Group, ICCR members

Result: Announced on 17 December 2020: proposals filed for the 2021 proxy season at seven companies, CVS, Dollar General, Kohl's, Kroger, McDonald's, Walmart and Yum! Brands, asking each board to report on the feasibility of paid sick leave as a standard employee benefit beyond the pandemic. None of the seven reached a vote. The certified Item 5.07 report for every one of those seven annual meetings was read, and no paid sick leave proposal appears among the matters voted on at any of them, so each proposal was withdrawn or omitted before the ballot. The documents opened do not say which of the two happened at which company, or on what terms.

No company in this group was found to have adopted permanent paid sick leave attributable to this campaign in the sources opened. CVS's own 2021 proxy lists paid sick leave for part-time employees among the COVID-19 measures it took through mid-February 2021, and does not tie it to a shareholder proposal.

As Covid Spikes, Investors Press for Paid Sick Leave for Frontline Retail and Food Workers, ICCR

A coalition of over 120 organizations demanded Tyson Foods provide personal protective equipment, paid sick leave, slower slaughter-line speeds, comprehensive COVID-19 testing, physical distancing, protection from retaliation for workers who organize, and elimination of a punitive attendance point system, after over 8,500 workers across 37 facilities tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 25 died.

With Friends of the Earth, HEAL Food Alliance, The Humane League, Venceremos, 120+ other organizations

Result: This was a public pressure campaign and sign-on letter directed partly at Tyson's institutional investors, not a shareholder resolution put to a vote.

We found no documented company-wide policy change directly attributed to this July 2020 campaign; continued investor dissatisfaction with Tyson's response is documented in the February 2021 shareholder vote listed separately above.

120+ organizations target meatpacking giant Tyson Foods for failing to protect workers from Covid-19, Friends of the Earth

Pressed Citigroup, through a shareholder resolution and direct engagement, to disclose its median (unadjusted, company-wide) gender and racial pay gap rather than only a narrower 'equal pay for equal work' adjusted figure.

Result: On January 16, 2019, Citigroup became the first major U.S. bank to disclose median pay gap data: women earned 29% less than men and minorities earned 7% less than non-minority employees on an unadjusted, company-wide basis.

Citigroup committed to increasing female representation in mid-to-senior roles to 40% by 2021. Separately, per HR Dive, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Mastercard, Wells Fargo and Bank of New York Mellon each agreed to work on closing pay gaps for women and non-white employees following similar shareholder pressure from Arjuna Capital, though the sources retrieved do not give those banks' specific disclosure figures.

Citigroup reveals it pays women 29 percent less than men in unprecedented disclosure, CBS News

Mondelez had already decided to move about 600 Nabisco factory jobs from Chicago's South Side to Salinas, Mexico. At the company's May 2017 annual meeting, the AFL-CIO's shareholder proposal asked the board to set up a joint labor-management committee to look at alternatives to plant closings in the future.

Result: Vote percentage not found in the sources retrieved for this research; the proposal was raised and voted on at the May 17, 2017 annual meeting. Filed under SEC Rule 14a-8.

we found no documented change: the relocation to Salinas, Mexico proceeded as planned; no source retrieved shows Mondelez reversing the move or adopting the requested labor-management committee.

Offshoring of Oreo-Maker Jobs Dominates Mondelez Shareholder Meeting, AFL-CIO