Google and Costco named America’s Best Employers for Women 2023

Google, Costco and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been named among America’s Best Employers for Women 2023.

The annual list, which was created in partnership with Statista and is compiled by Forbes from surveys of 40,000 women working for organisations employing at least 1,000 employees, highlights views on working environment, salary and employee diversity, and whether they would recommend the business to a friend or family member.

Female employees were also asked to rate their employer on pay equity, parental leave policies, leadership training programmes for women, representation of women in upper management, and their employer's response to incidents of discrimination. Further research was conducted into each organisation’s executive management or board positions to see whether there was a female presence.

Their answers were compared to those of 20,000 men to assess any differences in workplace perception, and were evaluated and combined to create a final score. The 400 organisations with the highest scores made the list.

The University of Oklahoma topped the list, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Google. Healthcare and social sector employers were the most represented in the top 25 along with insurance firms and retail and wholesale businesses, which each represented about 9% of the overall list. Costco was the highest-ranking retail and wholesale business, jumping from 379th place last year to seventh this year.

The top 10 America’s Best Employers for Women 2023 are:

1. University of Oklahoma
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Google
4. Cummins
5. Edward Jones
6. Fidelity Investments
7. Costco Wholesale
8. BlueCross BlueShiefd of Tennessee
9. Southern Company
10. General Mills

Alan Schwarz, senior editor at Forbes Media, said: “Employers that attract female talent also recognise that employees, and women in particular, need an environment that supports their caregiving responsibilities, whether that’s to children, older parents or another loved one. That’s because women, regardless of parental status, are considerably more likely than men to have their caregiving role impact their employment, prompting them to work part-time or leave the workforce.”