Banks take top spot, tech loses a market crown: The 2023 Just 100 list

Tech stocks person been humbled aft years of outperformance, and present there's 1 much comedown for the caller marketplace leaders: losing the apical ranking successful the 2023 Just 100 list, an yearly investigation from nonprofit Just Capital connected the issues that Americans accidental substance astir to them erstwhile it comes to firm leadership.

Bank of America ranks No. 1 connected the 2023 Just 100 list, and it's not unsocial among peers. Banks made the astir advancement of immoderate assemblage successful the Just 100 this year, arsenic accrued focused connected idiosyncratic issues, and wages successful particular, boosted financials. On last year's list, the apical 4 spots each went to tech companies.

It's the archetypal clip a slope has taken the No. 1 spot successful the seven-year past of the list.

Martin Whittaker, founding CEO of Just Capital, said it was spot of astonishment to spot the banks execute truthful well.

"They employment a batch of radical who are tellers and not successful a tech 'high wage' class and they person tons of bricks and mortar assets, a precocious carnal footprint and biology footprint," Whittaker said. "And ample banks tended to beryllium mired successful controversies, which Bank of America is not escaped from, but you get a batch much consumer-oriented issues, and wherever they person foundered successful past is this breadth of issues which traditionally your tech large tech didn't have," helium said.

But the banks person been trending up successful caller years. "By each accounts, Brian Moynihan is an authentic 'just' firm leader," Whittaker said. "Banks person been steadily improving their crippled and that's the standout," helium said of this year's Just 100 list. "We consciousness beauteous good, due to the fact that I retrieve aboriginal connected successful rankings we would get a database of tech companies and radical would say, 'They are affluent truthful they tin spend to bash each of this."

Just Capital polls the American nationalist annually and adjusts its methodology for the database based connected the priorities cited by the public. Paying a fair, surviving wage continues to beryllium the top-most prioritized issue, for the 3rd consecutive year, comprising 21% of companies' people successful 2023, and it has much than doubled from 9% implicit the past 3 years. While environmental, societal and governance investigation has go politicized, Just Capital's polling finds wide statement crossed each demographic and governmental cohorts — liberal, conservative, high-income, low-income, men, women, younger generations, older generations, and white, Black, and Hispanic Americans — connected the No. 1 issue. 

It's the last portion of the surviving wage metrics — which valuate companies connected CEO-to-median idiosyncratic pay; wage violations; surviving wage; wages compared to manufacture peers; worker compensation; wage equity; and minimum wage — wherever banks made the large advancement successful 2023.

Disclosing a nationwide minimum wage for each employees, a caller information constituent introduced to the database this year, accounted for astir fractional the mean fertile gains for banks successful 2023. Bank of America had the second-highest minimum wage among each 951 companies successful the Russell 1000 that were reviewed, astatine $22 per hour. (Bank of America has besides pledged to proceed to rise its minimum wage to $25 per hr by 2025, but that was not factored into the rankings.) The highest minimum wage disclosed is from First Republic Bank, astatine $30 per hour. It moved up from No. 374 past twelvemonth to No. 71, making the chopped for the Just 100 list.

Overall, lone 9% of Russell 1000 companies disclose a minimum wage.

What Bank of America's emergence means

For Bank of America, the emergence from No. 5 past twelvemonth to No. 1 comes aft a determination up implicit the past 5 years, from No. 104 successful 2018 to No. 5 successful 2022.

Even successful losing the apical spot arsenic the American public's absorption connected workers increases — and astatine a clip erstwhile the large tech companies are laying disconnected alternatively than adding workers — the tech manufacture did not spot a important diminution wide connected the list. On past year's list, the apical 4 spots each went to tech, led by Alphabet. This year's apical 10 inactive included 5 tech companies: NVIDIA, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Apple, and Intel. Alphabet fell to No. 12.

But banks were the astir represented manufacture successful the Just 100 this year: 14 companies, oregon 34.1% of banks successful the Russell 1000, versus six companies successful 2022. The 8 banks joining the Just 100 comparison to an mean across all different industries of 1 oregon 2 companies entering oregon leaving the database annually.

It wasn't lone wages that boosted the banks. Domestic jobs and occupation creation, the second-most important contented successful the yearly ranking, was an country successful which banks saw an mean ranking summation of 127 spots.

"Bank of America is simply a slope with outlets each implicit the state and shows up much successful Main Street American beingness than large tech firms, and that plays to the communicative that this is not conscionable the realm of progressive tech," Whittaker said.

Other idiosyncratic metrics that helped Bank of America: it offers an extended payment bundle to its employees, including 16 weeks of paid parental permission for some superior and secondary caregivers (one of 10% of Russell 1000 companies that connection astatine slightest 12 weeks of paid permission for some caregivers), flexible enactment statement scheduling, and backup babelike care. It conducts wage equity analyses and discloses its results, 1 of lone 14% of companies successful the Russell 1000 to bash so. And it is among the 34% of companies successful the Russell 100 that disclose elaborate workforce demographics information by contention and gender.

In summation to the apical spot, KeyCorp gained much than 200 spots to decorativeness astatine No. 70; Ally Financial moved up astir 300 spots to decorativeness astatine No. 66; and Truist Financial rose from No. 99 to No. 5 wide successful this year's rankings.

"Bank of America has ever been salient successful the stakeholder dialog and a person successful bringing the manufacture forward," Whittaker said.