Only 8% of C-suite leaders surveyed say they are seriously considering changing their diversity, equity and inclusion programs as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI, according to a Feb. 26 report from Littler.
While 53% of C-suite leaders surveyed after the inauguration said the administration’s policies and rhetoric are likely to decrease corporate DEI commitments in 2025 — a 15 percentage point jump from pre-inauguration survey results — 47% of executives said commitments will either remain the same or grow in 2025.
Still, more than half surveyed said they are worried about the risk of DEI-related lawsuits, government enforcement and shareholder proposals.
Those concerns may be well-founded as lawsuits and shareholder proposals already have challenged employers. Target, Costco and John Deere, to name a few, faced shareholder pressure regarding these issues from both DEI detractors and supporters.
Republican attorneys general also sent a pointed letter to Costco demanding the company drop its DEI programs within 30 days not long after the company’s board refused a shareholder proposal asking the company to produce a report on the risks of its DEI programming.
As far as internal DEI programming is concerned, only 22% of executives surveyed by Littler said they are considering eliminating DEI-focused roles, and 28% said they are considering employee resource group rollbacks.
But of those who are considering DEI pullbacks, 52% said they are looking at eliminating DEI benchmarks and similar metrics in part to avoid any semblance of quotas — something the Trump administration has loudly denounced. Various companies, including Google, have already made this move.
“The letter of the law” regarding DEI “remains unchanged,” Kate Mrkonich Wilson, Littler shareholder and member of the firm’s IE&D consulting practice, said in a statement. But the risk of lawsuits is “amplified” due to Trump’s regulatory priorities, she noted.
“As a result, it’s more important than ever” for private employers to review their DEI practices “for any potential vulnerabilities to guide compliance with longstanding anti-discrimination laws.”
