‘Shifting Legal Landscape’ Prompts McDonald’s To Claw Back Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies
The latest reforms place McDonald’s in the company of Walmart, Lowe’s, Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and several other corporations that have recently reevaluated their approach to DEI.
McDonald’s will reel back some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in light of the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling against affirmative action in college admissions decisions, the fast-food company announced Monday.
Such reforms include doing away with set goals for diversity in hiring, retiring the practice of requiring suppliers to sign DEI pledges, pausing the issuance of external surveys, and renaming the diversity team to “global inclusion team.”
Despite the changes, the company claims that it remains “steadfast” in its commitment to inclusivity, which it views as a “competitive advantage.” It cites the statistic that 30 percent of the company’s American “leaders” belong to underrepresented groups as a major “accomplishment” of 2024. As such, McDonald’s will uphold inclusivity with a new approach: promoting the “golden rule.” This policy, they write, entails “treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always.”
The decision follows the company’s participation in a civil rights audit — “that looked at all aspects of inclusion across our system” — conversations with shareholders, assessment of the “shifting legal landscape” and comparison with other companies in the industry, McDonald’s writes.
McDonald’s rolled out a series of DEI initiatives in 2021 after several sexual harassment lawsuits and a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. That year, the company began to link executive pay to the hiring of women and minority laborers.
The latest reforms place McDonald’s in the company of Walmart, Lowe’s, Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and other corporations that have reevaluated their approach to DEI policies in recent months.
Not everyone is hopping on the anti-DEI bandwagon, however. Costco’s board of directors, over the holidays, urged their shareholders to vote against a shareholder proposal that would require the company to reexamine its DEI policies and goals. The proposal describes Costco’s current initiatives as discriminatory and warns that they open shareholders to legal and financial risk.
