3 Companies Striving for Equal Pay Practices in 2025

This year in the US, women are earning, on average, 83% of what their male counterparts earn. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, I decided to look at major companies that not only are leading the way in pay practices but also score well on a variety of Morningstar metrics. Investors that emphasize pay-equity practices, such as investors seeking social impact, may be interested in researching these companies further.

Over the past three years, we’ve featured a range of companies from different industries that are committed to equal treatment of employees.

In 2023, we highlighted American Express AXP, Adobe ADBE, and Citigroup C for their strong pay equality disclosures. Revisiting Morningstar Sustainalytics pay equality assessment, these three firms continue to pursue their efforts. The companies we highlighted in 2024, Salesforce CRM, Truist TFC, and Verizon VZ, also continue to disclose progress on their pay equity work. We’ll monitor whether their 2024 and 2025 reports maintain these practices.

To analyze the stock-price performance of last year’s selections, I used Morningstar.com’s Portfolio tool to create a hypothetical portfolio with Salesforce, Truist, and Verizon, setting the purchase date to March 8, 2024—the date last year’s article published. Over the past year, Salesforce returned 9.52%, Truist 15.87%, and Verizon 1.21%, compared with 14.27% for the Morningstar US Market Index. While Truist beat the market, Salesforce and Verizon lagged.

According to Morningstar research, all three have maintained their economic moats, which help companies fend off competition and earn high returns on capital for many years to come. If a company’s competitive advantage lasts more than 20 years, Morningstar considers it as having a wide moat. If it can fend off rivals for 10 years, it has a narrow moat. If a competitive advantage doesn’t exist or may prove fleeting, there’s no moat.

Here are current metrics for the companies we profiled in 2024:

Truist TFC

• Morningstar Rating: 3 Stars
• Price/Fair Value: 0.96
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Narrow
• ESG Risk Rating: Medium, 23.66

Salesforce CRM

• Morningstar Rating: 3 Stars
• Price/Fair Value: 0.98
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Wide
• ESG Risk Rating: 15.18, Low

Verizon VZ

• Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars
• Price/Fair Value: 0.82
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Narrow
• ESG Risk Rating: 19.32, Low

3 Equal-Pay Stalwarts for 2025

This year, we reviewed Morningstar Sustainalytics data and sorted by large public US firms that have strong pay equity programs and disclosures. Assessments consider whether a company discloses its commitment to gender pay equality, outlines initiatives to close the gap, conducts a global gender pay gap audit, sets targets or deadlines, and reports the median and/or mean gender pay gap.

We then looked at Morningstar financial performance indicators such as the Morningstar Economic Moat Rating, price/fair value ratio, and the Morningstar Rating to determine companies committed to pay fairness that may be worth a further look for investors who emphasize pay-equity issues.

This year, they include:

Microsoft MSFT

• Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars
• Price/Fair Value: 0.83
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Wide
• ESG Risk Rating: Low, 13.51

Microsoft has disclosed pay equity data since 2016. In 2024, it reports achieving pay equity for women compared with men based on their adjusted pay gap, which compares men and women in substantially similar roles. When comparing women to men globally without adjusting for role type, women currently earn 89% relative to men. The company also discloses that it has achieved pay equity for all racial and ethnic groups in the US, when comparing similar roles. With artificial intelligence on the rise, Microsoft Azure acceleration makes the stock look attractive heading into the second half of the year, says Dan Romanoff, Morningstar’s senior equity analyst covering the firm. Microsoft is currently trading at a 17% discount to Morningstar’s fair value estimate.

Albemarle ALB

• Morningstar Rating: 5 Stars
• Price/Fair Value: 0.36
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Narrow
• ESG Risk Rating: 20.11, Medium

Albemarle is one of the leading global lithium producers—think lithium batteries used for electric vehicles. With its 5-star rating and trading at a whopping 64% discount to Morningstar’s fair value estimate, this company’s strong Morningstar metrics pair nicely with its commitment to pay fairness for its employees. In early 2024, Albemarle conducted a living wage assessment for all its full-time US employees, finding that all US employees are earning above the living wage benchmark for their respective location. Albemarle also regularly reviews its pay practices to evaluate equity in compensation.

Coty COTY

• Morningstar Rating: 4 Stars
• Price/Fair Value: 0.59
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: None
• ESG Risk Rating: 23.91, Medium

Coty, a global beauty and cosmetics maker, states its commitment to equal pay “regardless of gender” on its website. The company discloses a target to continue equal pay for similar roles and performance until 2030. In 2024, Coty met its pay equity commitment within its leadership division. Across all other role categories, the gap ranged from 2%-5%, which Coty has vowed to reduce in 2025. This Covergirl and Kylie Cosmetics parent company is currently trading at a 41% discount to Morningstar’s fair value estimate.

Morningstar covers its own pay-equity program in its annual corporate sustainability report. Morningstar’s 2024 report will be published on March 28, 2025.