In advertising and marketing its products, L’Oréal is committed to communicating responsibly by ensuring that it respects the infinite diversity of beauty needs and desires around the world. In its Code of Ethics, the Group commits not to harm the dignity of human beings or present degrading stereo types in its advertising. It is also sensitive to possible reactions to the Group’s advertising from different religious, ethnic, cultural or social groups.
To strengthen our commitment to more inclusive marketing and advertising, in 2021 L’Oréal joined the Unstereotype Alliance, an initiative led by companies convened by UN Women. The Unstereotype Alliance brings together advertisers, industry leaders and designers with the aim of eradicating harmful stereotypes in advertising.
Achieving real gender equality, up to the most strategic positions, is a key challenge for L’Oréal, which aims to strengthen its ability to innovate while promoting a culture of inclusion. The Group therefore ensures that all jobs are accessible to women and men, both at the level of recruitment and with regard to opportunities for career development. Special attention is given to pivotal periods such as parenthood (see paragraph “The L’Oréal Share & Care programme: an accelerator of social progress” in section 4.3.2.4. of this document).
The policy on diversity and gender balance deployed in the Group includes a goal to maintain, every year, a proportion of employees of each gender that may not be less than 40% in strategic positions (around 300 positions). General Management reports annually to the Board of Directors on this policy and the results obtained during the previous financial year. Under the 19th resolution submitted for approval by the Annual General Meeting of 21 April 2022, the Board of Directors, at its meeting on 9 February 2022 and on the recommendation of the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee, decided to introduce criteria for non-financial performance in addition to financial performance within the long-term remuneration plans, one of which is a criterion linked to gender balance in strategic positions.
Since March 2019, L’Oréal has published its “Index of Professional Gender Equality”, which is calculated using five indicators defined by the “Professional Future” law. This 2022 Group Index is at 97% for all of L’Oréal’s French entities.
Since 2007, L’Oréal has collaborated with the INED (National Institute for Demographic Studies) to conduct an annual analysis of the differences in remuneration between women and men working in France. The aim is to guarantee identical pay for people with the same level of skills and the same classification. The median pay gap in France decreased from 10% in 2007 to 0% in 2019 for all categories(1) (stable in 2020).
In addition to the INED analysis in France, in 2020 L’Oréal launched a global tool to measure gender pay equality “all things being equal” (net of structural effects) certified by EDGE.
This analysis was conducted in 28 countries in 2021 (representing more than 80% of the global workforce): Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States.
According to this analysis, the average “unexplained” salary gaps in these countries is -0.76% in favour of men. L’Oréal aims to eliminate any “unexplained” salary gaps due to gender in all countries analysed by 2025.
As of 31 December 2021, women account for:
L’Oréal chose to have its gender equality practices and policies audited and relies on two independent organisations to measure and assess the situation of its subsidiaries: Gender Equality European & International Standard (GEEIS) and Economic Dividend for Gender Equality (EDGE).
Since 2010, the Group’s head office in France and 23 of its countries have been awarded the GEEIS label, and are audited every two years by Bureau Veritas to measure the progress achieved. The countries currently certified are:Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
As of today, 8 other countries rely on the EDGE certification process. The countries are audited by the third-party organisations Flocert or Intertek in order to be certified. L’Oréal USA was the first country to earn the label in 2014. The countries currently certified are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Philippines, Russia, Switzerland and United States.
In 2021, L’Oréal Brazil was the first of the Group’s subsidiaries to achieve “EDGE Lead” status, the highest level of EDGE certification.
In 2021, L’Oréal USA and L’Oréal Canada were the first of the Group’s subsidiaries to achieve “EDGE Plus” status, which provides an additional analysis in terms of intersectional equality (gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, disability and nationality).
☑ The Statutory Auditors have expressed reasonable assurance about this indicator.
(1) For more information, see the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion key figures” section on the loreal.com website.
(2) Strategic positions, including the Executive Committee(around 300 positions).
(3) These are the positions with the greatest responsibility: strategic positions, other key positions monitored at Group level and key positions monitored at the local/regional level. These positions represent 12% of L’Oréal S.A. employees as of 31 December 2021.
(4) These are the positions with the greatest responsibility: strategic positions, other key positions monitored at Group level and key positions monitored at the local/regional level. These positions represent 6.2% of Group employees as of 31 December 2021.
