Among both top Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, non-discrimination protections for LGBT employees are good for business, according to studies from the Williams Institute and Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP recently polled small businesses and found that non-discrimination policies and same-sex partner benefits were inexpensive to implement and incredibly effective for boosting employee recruitment and retention. Today’s Williams Institute study of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies confirms CAP’s results, showing that the nation’s largest companies benefit greatly from LGBT-inclusive policies:
- 92 percent state that policies promoting employee diversity in general are good for their bottom line.
- 53 percent link diversity policies that specifically include LGBT people to a positive impact on business.
- Benefits include improved recruitment and retention, ideas and innovation, customer service, employee productivity, public sector clients, and employee relations and morale.
- Most companies indicated that treating employees with respect and fairness is “the right thing to do.”
These studies demonstrate how misguided the Republican base is when it opposes LGBT equality. Republican leadership has been instrumental in defending discrimination across the states, such as those who banned non-discrimination protections in Tennessee. Congressional Republicans have prevented the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act for over 15 years. In these cases and others, they are working against the best interests of businesses both large and small. For Republicans, discriminating against the LGBT community is apparently a higher priority than supporting the economy.