The New Normal

For American companies, 100 percent is the new normal.

That's not a sales figure or a stock value.

That's the perfect score that 252 companies earned when we evaluated their workplace policies for LGBT employees in this year's Corporate Equality Index (CEI).

When we started the CEI 11 years ago, there were just 13 perfect scores.

So while the federal government and many state governments lag behind, American businesses continue to make great strides on LGBT equality. The result is a total transformation in the lives of millions of LGBT employees and their families.

Bring the CEI home by checking out HRC's 2013 Buyer's Guide - a helpful holiday shopping tool to see which brands are best on LGBT equality.

HRC's goal with the CEI has always been to provide companies with a roadmap to fair policies. As more and more businesses compete to retain top talent, LGBT-inclusive policies have become a corporate standard - just 11 years after our first edition.

There's a lot more good news out of this year's CEI. Here are some of the other amazing stats and what they mean for equality:

• A record 74 businesses actively and publicly supported pro-equality legislation at the state and federal levels. Without their help, victories like marriage equality in Washington may not have been possible.
• 2013 saw the largest growth in the survey's history, with 54 new businesses participating - up to 688 this year, more than double the number that participated in the CEI's first year.
• Last year, we insisted that companies include transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage if they wanted to earn a perfect 100 percent score. Now an impressive 42 percent of CEI participants offer it, up from 19 percent last year.

Enacting these company policies isn't just the right thing to do - it's good for business and makes an enormous difference in the lives of millions.

But there's still quite a bit of work left. While the average score of companies who participate in the CEI is 84 (in the green), the average score for corporations who chose not to participate in the CEI this year is a disappointing 11. And that's the biggest problem - a full quarter of businesses in the CEI are in the red, just because they didn't respond.

Now you can take part by downloading the 2013 Buying for Workplace Equality Guide that'll show you how your favorite stores and companies treat their LGBT staff. (There's even an app for that!)

Don't wait until you're finished shopping - check out the CEI and the Buyer's Guide online, by downloading the mobile app onto your iPhone, or by texting SHOP and the company name to 30644 today.

Thanks for taking a minute to look through and share this encouraging and great news.