Company That Commissioned Fearless Girl Statue Also Paid White Men More Than Other Employees

Photo credit: Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0.

Today in “companies that don’t put their values into practice,” we go to Adweek:

State Street Corp., parent company of the investment firm behind Wall Street’s iconic Fearless Girl statue, today agreed to pay a combined $5 million to more than 300 women and 15 black employees who were paid less than their white, male counterparts, according to a federal audit.

Well. Um.

(Also, I have questions about the phrase “300 women and 15 black employees.”)

When you read the full article, you learn that State Street Corp. knew that putting up the Fearless Girl statue might draw some attention to the way they ran their business. Adweek recalls State Street Global Advisors CMO Stephen Tisdalle’s comments at an Advertising Week panel:

“Do we as an organization reflect the penultimate makeup and reflection in being a diverse organization? No. And that was a risk because a lot of the people felt the message might be diluted by a lot of cynical people saying, ‘Well who are you to talk about gender diversity when you’re not a perfect embodiment of it?’”

First of all, that’s not what penultimate means.

Second of all, you could have tried to improve your organization’s policies.

Offering equal pay for equal work would have been a good start.

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