Estée Lauder Companies Earns Top Score for Corporate Equality from Human Rights Campaign

The Estée Lauder Companies—No. 2 on Happi's 2023 Top 50 Report—has achieved a perfect score of 100 on the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation for the eighth year in a row.

The index is a leading survey evaluating corporate policies and practices pertaining to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.

Efforts in satisfying all the CEI’s also means ELC has been designated as a recipient of the Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion.

“The Estée Lauder Companies continues to lead in its efforts to embrace and support the LGBTQIA+ community at our company. We are proud to receive this award for the 8th consecutive year and the 14th year overall. Our ‘wELCome’ employee resource group (ERG) is a beacon for our employee base, driving efforts in equity, business impact, mentorship, and philanthropy around the world. I’m proud to be one of the co-executive business sponsors of the ERG and lead our corporate efforts with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index,” said Doug Jensen, senior vice president, GTM analytics and activation and learning COE, enterprise marketing and data, and the executive co-sponsor of wELCome, ELC’s LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group.

“For well over two decades, businesses have played an important role in furthering LGBTQ+ equality by centering employee needs and voices when it comes to workplace inclusion. While there is much more work to be done, year-over-year growth in CEI participation is evidence of a business community that recognizes the responsibility and value in upholding equity and inclusion,” added RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, Human Rights Campaign senior director of workplace equality.

According to Hawkins, the goal of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation is to work in “a spirit of partnership with companies, providing educational resources and leading benchmarking and collaborating on ways for businesses to support the LGBTQ+ community at a time when we face unprecedented legislative attacks, heightened anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and physical violence. The CEI is an ever-evolving tool — a blueprint that companies can use to show up more effectively in supporting their LGBTQ+ employees and their families.”