Trailblazer PACESETTER Late Bloomer

Altria, one of the world’s largest producers of tobacco products, has been ranked as a PACESETTER on the Women’s Power and Influence Index.

Altria’s compensation team regularly runs analyses to address unidentified pay discrepancies with salary adjustments for over 20 years and Altria has achieved pay parity. Altria’s immersive nine-month WELL program offers professional development training and mentorship for women in Alrtia’s workforce. Altria has gender-specific recruitment efforts and goals, including having an equal number of men and women serving as VPs and directors. Altria offers paid parental leave and offers reimbursement of up to $35,000 per surrogacy arrangement or for fertility-related costs such as IVF treatment.

As of 2022, women constitute 36.03% of the total workforce and 33.93% of leadership.

Information related to subsidized child care and harassment/discrimination training could not be found or did not meet the Index’s criteria standards. 

Review the comprehensive WPI criteria and methodology.

✓ Does the company demonstrate a clear and transparent commitment to equal pay? 

“When it comes to pay equity for women, our results are better. Altria has a long-standing practice of reviewing salaries to mitigate potential inequities.” Ref: Altria Pay Gap Report

✓ Does the company perform an annual analysis of gender pay equity and pay disparities? 

“For more than 20 years, Altria’s Compensation team has regularly run statistical analyses to identify unexplained pay discrepancies and address them with salary adjustments.” Ref: Altria Pay Gap Report

✓ Do female employees earn at least 95% of what their male counterparts earn?

“Based on the most recent annual analysis conducted at Altria in November 2019, salaries of female employees were 99.7% of those of our male employees and salaries of our non-white employees were 99.5% of those of our white employees after adjusting for factors generally considered to be legitimate differentiators of salary.” Ref: Altria Pay Gap Report

✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to actively attracting, retaining, and/or promoting women within the organization? 

“In 2020, we launched the following Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) Aiming Points:

• Be an inclusive place to work for all employees, regardless of level, demographic group or work function.
• Have equal numbers of men and women among our Vice Presidents (VP) and our Directors.” Ref: Altria Diversity (Website)

✓ Does the company provide professional development programs designed specifically for female employees? 

“The leadership development program, Women Executives Leading and Learning (WELL Program), originated as a solution in support of that goal and in response to feedback from women across the company saying they wanted to see more women at the top. The WELL Program was an immersive nine-month program focused on these components while leveraging robust 360 feedback, interactive classroom sessions, and senior leader mentorships.” Ref: Altria Leadership Development (Website)

✓ Does the company provide professional development programs designed specifically for diverse employees?

“The leadership development program, Women Executives Leading and Learning (WELL Program), originated as a solution in support of that goal and in response to feedback from women across the company saying they wanted to see more women at the top. The WELL Program was an immersive nine-month program focused on these components while leveraging robust 360 feedback, interactive classroom sessions, and senior leader mentorships.” Ref: Altria Leadership Development (Website)

✓ Does the company offer a formal mentoring program to support the career advancement of all female employees? 

“The leadership development program, Women Executives Leading and Learning (WELL Program), originated as a solution in support of that goal and in response to feedback from women across the company saying they wanted to see more women at the top. The WELL Program was an immersive nine-month program focused on these components while leveraging robust 360 feedback, interactive classroom sessions, and senior leader mentorships.” Ref: Altria Leadership Development (Website)

✓ Does the company offer a formal mentoring program to support the career advancement of diverse employees?  

“The leadership development program, Women Executives Leading and Learning (WELL Program), originated as a solution in support of that goal and in response to feedback from women across the company saying they wanted to see more women at the top. The WELL Program was an immersive nine-month program focused on these components while leveraging robust 360 feedback, interactive classroom sessions, and senior leader mentorships.” Ref: Altria Leadership Development (Website)

✓ Does the company have policies and programs in place to actively recruit female candidates?

“Be an inclusive place to work for all employees, regardless of level, demographic group or work function. Have equal numbers of men and women among our VPs and our Directors. We believe that achieving all of our I&D Aiming Points will likely take between five and ten years. It will require commitment, transparency and accountability. To be successful, beginning in 2020 we will:

1. Measure and Share We will measure our progress and broadly share at least twice a year how we’re doing in areas critical to driving our success as well as our progress in reaching our aiming points.

2. Build the Best, Most DiverseTeams We will narrow gaps in underrepresented groups by developing talent acquisition and onboarding strategies and goals at both the enterprise and functional levels.

3. Develop the Pipeline We will invest in leader and employee development to build a diverse talent pipeline prepared and willing to lead at every level.

4. Hold Ourselves Accountable We will leverage organizational plans, the Altria Diversity Council, Employee Resource Groups, external partnerships and people systems to help us deliver these results.” Ref: Pg 52, Altria CSR Report 2019

✓ Does the company have policies and programs in place to actively recruit diverse candidates? 

“Be an inclusive place to work for all employees, regardless of level, demographic group or work function. Have equal numbers of men and women among our VPs and our Directors. We believe that achieving all of our I&D Aiming Points will likely take between five and ten years. It will require commitment, transparency and accountability. To be successful, beginning in 2020 we will:

1. Measure and Share We will measure our progress and broadly share at least twice a year how we’re doing in areas critical to driving our success as well as our progress in reaching our aiming points.

2. Build the Best, Most DiverseTeams We will narrow gaps in underrepresented groups by developing talent acquisition and onboarding strategies and goals at both the enterprise and functional levels.

3. Develop the Pipeline We will invest in leader and employee development to build a diverse talent pipeline prepared and willing to lead at every level.

4. Hold Ourselves Accountable We will leverage organizational plans, the Altria Diversity Council, Employee Resource Groups, external partnerships and people systems to help us deliver these results.” Ref: Pg 52, Altria CSR Report 2019

✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to providing support and/or time off for women with children?

“We know family is the most important thing to our employees. That’s why we offer competitive benefits packages for our employees and their families.” Ref: Altria Benefits (Website)

✓ Does the company provide child care support for employees?  

An optional Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account to reimburse yourself on a pre-tax basis for child care or adult dependent care expenses. Ref: Altria Benefits (Website)

✘ Does the company offer subsidized child care?

Information regarding this criterion was unavailable or incomplete.

✓Does the company offer paid maternity leave for birthing parents?

“Paid Family and Medical Leave of up to 12 weeks of full pay for various reasons, including bonding with a new child and caring for a family member. This benefit is in addition to Short-Term Disability benefits, if applicable.” Ref: Altria Benefits (Website)

✓Does the company provide paid parental leave that extends beyond birthing parents to include surrogacy, adoption, and paternity leave?

“Paid Family and Medical Leave of up to 12 weeks of full pay for various reasons, including bonding with a new child and caring for a family member. This benefit is in addition to Short-Term Disability benefits, if applicable

Paid Time Off for emergency care for a qualified child, parent, spouse or domestic partner (with limitations).” Ref: Altria Benefits (Website)

✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to supporting the health benefits of its female employees?

“For employees who want to create a family through surrogacy or fertility treatments (medical diagnosis of infertility not required), the company will reimburse up to $35,000 per surrogacy arrangement or for fertility-related costs (e.g. IVF treatments). Also available is a lifetime maximum of $10,000 for cryopreservation.” Ref: Altria Benefits (Website)

✓ Does the company offer women-specific health benefits for female employees?

“For employees who want to create a family through surrogacy or fertility treatments (medical diagnosis of infertility not required), the company will reimburse up to $35,000 per surrogacy arrangement or for fertility-related costs (e.g. IVF treatments). Also available is a lifetime maximum of $10,000 for cryopreservation..” Ref: Altria Benefits (Website)

✓ Does the company have a policy listing prohibited behaviors, such as harassment and retaliation?

“As part of our commitment to a positive work environment, we expect all employees to treat everyone with integrity and respect regardless of level or differences. We prohibit all forms of harassment based on race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, citizenship status, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or any other legally protected characteristic.

Harassment includes anything that creates an offensive, hostile or intimidating work environment for another person. It may include: n Making offensive racial, ethnic, religious, age-related, sexual orientation-related or sexual jokes or insults n Distributing or displaying offensive pictures or cartoons n Using email, voicemail, text messages, social media or electronic devices to transmit derogatory or discriminatory information n Making unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, unwanted physical contact or repeated, unwelcome sexual suggestions.” Ref: Pg 4, Altria Code of Conduct

✘ Does the company mandate all employees to undergo harassment and discrimination training?

Information regarding this criterion was unavailable or incomplete.

✓ Does the company have a defined harassment policy that includes promptly addressing reported incidents?

“Those who fail to follow our Code, policies or procedures are subject to disciplinary action. At a minimum, this means counseling, but it could include termination of employment. Certain compliance violations may also subject the offenders to civil or criminal prosecution.” Ref: Pg 20, Altria Code of Conduct

✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to helping external stakeholders address gender equality issues?

“Our work to advance women and women of color includes benchmarking with other companies and working with nonprofits who conduct research on the topic. A key nonprofit with this expertise is Catalyst, a global organization that focuses on accelerating progress for women within business and on corporate boards. To further the goal of getting more women into the boardroom, in 2019, we announced a $1 million one-time grant to Catalyst to support its Women On Board program, designed to champion qualified women board candidates by pairing them with sitting corporate directors – who are primarily white men – for a two-year period. This aims to disrupt old patterns and unconscious bias through the proven effectiveness of 1-on-1 sponsorship.” Ref: Altria Pay Gap Report (Website)

✓ Does the company offer and support initiatives that promote gender equality in the community?

✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to helping internal stakeholders/employees address gender equality issues?

“Like many other companies, Altria has worked hard – for years – on being inclusive. Today, we have one of the most diverse leadership teams we’ve ever had: almost 40% are women and/or people of color. Altria also benefits from a diverse board, with one-third of independent director seats held by women.

Within Altria, similar to national trends, we’ve made progress advancing women, in particular white women, to the Vice President level and higher. But we have more work to do to give female colleagues from underrepresented groups the same opportunities.” Ref: Ref: Altria Pay Gap Report (Website)

✓ Does the company offer equity-focused trainings, speaker programs, or events for employees?

“Women’s Network: Raise the voice and profile of women at Altria to achieve equality through advocacy.” Ref: Altria ERG (Website)

*Our Index utilizes binary measurements, where ✓ represents a score of 1, and ✘ represents a score of 0.

*All links are valid as of April 2024