Companies in the US that continued with their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, despite pressure and former President Donald Trump's executive orders in January 2025, performed just as well financially as those that ended their policies.
This finding comes from new research, published today and shared exclusively with the Guardian, which analysed how S&P 500 companies fared after the executive orders. Companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s, and Walmart had previously announced an end to their DEI policies.
Jacob Grumbach, an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, conducted the research. He found that firms which maintained their DEI policies or voted down anti-DEI shareholder resolutions did not see a negative financial impact.
David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University’s law school, noted that many companies made adjustments to their diversity principles due to legal and regulatory environments.