McDonald’s joins the wave of US companies withdrawing from DEI

The DEI rollback across corporate America now includes the nation’s best-known fast food chain, McDonald’s (MCD).

said the burger giant in a Monday announcement that it would retreat from its practice of setting aspirational representation targets, known as quotas, and end a company’s pledge to hire a diverse group of suppliers in favor of “a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion in relation to business performance .”

McDonald’s added that it would also pause external investigations and change the way it refers to it diversity team to the “Global Inclusion Team.”

The changes, communicated via email Monday to McDonald’s restaurant owners, operators, employees and suppliers, come amid a backlash against diversity-focused initiatives and “woke” policies that have gained momentum across corporate America in 2024.

The list of companies that have withdrawn or adjusted such policies now includes many of the biggest names in business. Walmart ( WMT ) , for example, backed off its DEI initiatives in November after public and shareholder pressure to do so.

Home improvement giant Lowe’s ( LOW ), rural retailer Tractor Supply ( TSCO ) and tractor maker John Deere ( DE ) also announced withdrawals from DEI policies last summer.

Harley-Davidson (HOG), Jack Daniel’s creator Brown-Forman ( BF-A ), Polaris ( PII ) and its motorcycle subsidiary, Indian Motorcycle, are among the other recent withdrawals.

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has said many of the scrapped diversity initiatives happened after he communicated plans to “debunk” woke policies.

Starbuck contacted McDonald’s to inquire about its policies, although he did not engage in talks with the company, according to CNBC.

There have been other rollbacks enforced by the courts.

Last month, a federal appeals court struck down Nasdaq rules designed to encourage more diverse corporate boards.

The ruling by nine judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans concluded that the Securities and Exchange Commission should not have approved the Nasdaq rules in 2021.

McDonald’s on Monday cited a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Students for Fair Admissions v President and Fellows of Harvard Collegeas a catalyst to rethink its DEI approach.

After the ruling, the company said, it believed the legal landscape had changed and benchmarked its approach against other companies also reevaluating diversity programs.

The court in Students for Fair Admissions specifically ruled against race-conscious student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, saying the programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The story continues