Rockwell Collins, Transamerica rank high for treatment of LGBTQ employees

Two major Cedar Rapids-area employers received top marks for their treatment of LGBTQ employees.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation released its 2018 Corporate Equality Index Thursday. The index ranks companies on their inclusion of and policies for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.

Both avionics company Rockwell Collins and insurance company Transamerica received a score of 100 on the index, the top score the HRC Foundation provides.

United Technologies Corp., the Connecticut-based company that plans to acquire Rockwell, also scored 100 in the report.

The index scores companies on a broad set of criteria, including whether they prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, provide transgender-inclusive health insurance, have equivalent medical benefits for partners or spouses, and 'positively engages with the external LGBTQ community.'

Two Des Moines-based businesses, insurance companies Principal Financial Group and Wellmark Inc., also received the highest scores.

They were among 609 businesses that earned a score of 100, up from 517 in last year's index.

'The top-scoring companies on this year's CEI are not only establishing policies that affirm and include employees here in the United States, they are applying these policies to their operations around the globe and impacting millions of people beyond our shores,' HRC President Chad Griffin said in a news release.

Here's how some other companies with operations in the Corridor and Iowa scored:

Company / Score

Alliant Energy

100

Archer Daniels Midland

70

Cargill

100

Casey's General Stores

No score, did not participate in CEI survey.

CenturyLink

95

Deere & Co.

90

General Mills

100

GoDaddy Inc.

90

Ingredion

No score, did not participate in CEI survey.

International Paper

45

Nordstrom

100

Pearson Inc.

100

PepsiCo

100

Proctor & Gamble Co.

100

Tyson Foods

100

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; matthew.patane@thegazette.com