McDonald’s to Slash Executive Bonuses If They Don’t Place More Minorities in Senior Leadership Roles

McDonald's in Times Square, New York, on Aug. 23, 2016. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)

McDonald’s announced it will slash executives’ bonuses if they don’t place more minorities in the firm’s senior leadership roles.

“We’re implementing policies that hold our leaders directly accountable for making tangible progress on our [diversity, equity, and inclusion] goals,” McDonald’s stated in a Feb. 18 press release, titled “Allyship through Accountability.”

McDonald’s added that it “expects to increase representation of historically underrepresented groups in leadership roles (Senior Director and above) located in the U.S. to 35 percent” and “to increase representation of women in leadership roles globally (Senior Director and above) to 45 percent” by the year 2025. The figures are currently 29 percent and 37 percent, respectively, the statement said.

And 15 percent of the senior executive vice presidents’ bonuses will be contingent on “quantitative human capital management-related metrics,” and they'll be judged with an “inclusion index” that’s designed to measure their hiring practices and inclusivity, according to the Washington Examiner, citing the release.

“In addition to the Company’s financial performance, executives will be measured on their ability to champion our core values, improve representation within leadership roles for both women and historically underrepresented groups, and create a strong culture of inclusion within the Company,” McDonald’s stated.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski, on LinkedIn, echoed some of the press release’s statements and wrote that “we recognize these issues weigh heavily on our people and have heard—loud and clear—that diversity, equity, and inclusion are priorities for our entire team, from our crews to our senior leaders.”

“Allyship,” which is in the title of the McDonald’s press release, is a term associated with critical race theory, a Marxist-inspired supposition that posits that people are defined as either “oppressed” or “oppressors.” McDonald’s, along with a number of other large multinational corporations, pledged to donate to Black Lives Matter following George Floyd’s death and the resulting protests and riots last year. McDonald’s and other large corporations largely didn’t acknowledge the violence and riots sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests last year.

The release echoes sentiments that were included in a training held by Coca-Cola, according to photos released by a whistleblower last week, that calls on workers to “be less white.” The training was laden with critical race theory-inspired terminology. “Be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less ignorant, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy, break with white solidarity” are listed as ways to become “less white,” according to the training slides.

Coca-Cola issued a statement on its website appearing to distance itself from the content of the training.

“The video and images attributed to a Coca-Cola training program are not part of the company’s learning curriculum,” reads a statement from the company titled “Statement on The Coca-Cola Company Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Training.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to McDonald’s for comment.