A new national rating launched this week gives HR leaders a breakdown of how 1,750 major U.S. employers stack up on pay, career advancement and retention.
The Where You Work Matters List was assembled by the Schultz Family Foundation and the Burning Glass Institute, in partnership with the Managing the Future of Work Project at Harvard Business School. It does not rely on company surveys, self-reported data or corporate participation. Instead, it draws on an empirical analysis of real-world outcomes for more than 12 million American workers across nearly 55,000 occupations.
“Transparent information around how companies pay, promote and retain their workforce on a role-by-role basis will enable a better marketplace in America,” said Howard Schultz, co-founder of the Schultz Family Foundation.
How the ratings work
Companies earn platinum or gold badges based on performance across three categories of job quality:
- Early Career Jobs, which are accessible to entry-level workers and build transferable skills
- Growth Jobs, which offer clear pathways for advancement within the company and beyond
- Stability Jobs, which provide leading pay and strong retention
Critically, ratings are assessed at the occupation level first, then aggregated. A company’s overall badge reflects how it actually performs across its workforce, role by role.
“This initiative gives employers a clear picture of what ‘good’ looks like for each role,” said Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute. “That insight can help companies strengthen career pathways and design jobs that create greater opportunity.”
Of the 1,750 employers assessed, 350 earned overall platinum recognition. Twenty-two companies went further, earning platinum across all three categories. That group includes Boeing, DocuSign, Fidelity Investments, General Motors, HubSpot, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Lockheed Martin, Mayo Clinic, Northrop Grumman, Northwell Health, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, Qualcomm, Stryker and Texas Instruments, among others.
What the data reveals
Software firms feature among the top performers. Five of the 22 companies earning platinum across all three categories are software and technology companies: DocuSign, HubSpot, Jamf, MathWorks and Qualtrics.
But the list also makes clear that tech is not the only path to building great jobs. The 22 platinum honorees span defense and aerospace, financial services, healthcare, insurance and consumer goods. This suggests that workforce investment is a leadership choice as much as a function of industry economics.
For HR leaders specifically, the list functions as both a mirror and a market signal. Eva Sage-Gavin, a former senior managing director for talent and organization at Accenture and a veteran HR executive at Gap Inc., The Walt Disney Company, PepsiCo and Sun Microsystems, said in a release, “Where you work has a significant impact on your ability to build skills, increase your earnings and advance your career. What this list does is make that visible. It gives business leaders a clearer understanding of how well their companies are developing talent and creating opportunity within their workforce.”
The timing is deliberate. “As AI reshapes the labor market, the companies best positioned to thrive will be those that have built strong, sustainable talent pipelines, enabling them to meet the disruptions and opportunities that will emerge,” said Rajiv Chandrasekaran, managing director at the Schultz Family Foundation, in a release.
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