Nine Colorado companies earned a perfect score on this year's Corporate Equality Index (CEI), an annual report from LGBTQ policy foundation the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that ranks companies based on best practices for LGBTQ inclusion.
Colorado’s representatives include well-known brands like Arrow Electronics, Ball Corp. and New Belgium Brewing.
This year, the HRC gave 767 companies in the U.S. a perfect score on its CEI, which uses criteria across four categories: non-discrimination policies, equitable benefits for LGBTQ workers and their families, supporting and inclusive culture and corporate social responsibility.
HRC updates its CEI criteria to reflect how best practices for LGBTQ inclusion at work change over time. In a statement, the organization noted that an increasing number of companies have adopted transgender-inclusive initiatives, particularly comprehensive health coverage — "the most considerable progress" measured in the CEI's 19-year history, per the HRC.
"While the CEI cannot measure every facet of what makes a workspace inclusive, it does create a foundation upon which employees can feel more comfortable living and working as their true selves—an important step, but one which is only the starting point," HRC President Alphonso David said in the statement. "Diversity and inclusion policies and practices advanced through tools like the CEI are critical, but meaningful change requires breathing life into these policies in real and tangible ways, so that LGBTQ employees are truly seen, valued and respected not only at work, but in every aspect of life."
These are the companies that earned a score of 100 in Colorado:
- Arcadis U.S. Inc.
- Arrow Electronics
- Ball Corp.
- Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP
- Holland & Hart LLP
- Janus Henderson Investors
- National CineMedia Inc.
- New Belgium Brewing Co.
- Newmont Corp.
