Praxis Mutual Funds and Christian Brothers Investment Services led a group of seven faith-based investment organizations in urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to keep a rule requiring businesses to disclose the CEO/median worker pay ratio.

The rule came into effect January 2017. The SEC is now re-evaluating the disclosure, however, due to pressure from the new administration to eliminate regulations that are perceived to cause an undue reporting burden to companies.

Praxis, CBIS and the others who signed the letter believe that the CEO/median worker pay ratio provides valuable information about a company’s health and is an important measure of income inequality in society. They argue that disclosing the CEO/median worker pay ratio will help the economy be fairer and more efficient, and outweighs any negatives.

“Faith-based investors serve not only as financial fiduciaries, but also stewards of the intersection of real-world investment practices with the religious values and teachings of their communities,” said Mark Regier, Vice President of Stewardship Investing for Praxis Mutual Funds, a faith-based, socially responsible family of mutual funds, designed to help people integrate their faith and finances. “This double responsibility both brings us together with, but at times separates us from others in the investment world.”

Julie Tanner, Director of Catholic Responsible Investing℠ for CBIS, an asset management firm that helps Catholic organizations align their investments with their beliefs, agrees. “Catholic ethical and social teaching recognizes the rights of employees to receive just wages and the obligation of corporations to share prosperity broadly throughout the firm. In a world filled with growing unrest over income disparity, companies can demonstrate a mutually beneficial relationship with their employees by disclosing the firm’s compensation plans through the proposed pay ratio. This ratio can also help shareholders effectively assess how financial gains are distributed and how employee contributions are valued.”

By signing the letter together, as members of Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility – a network of asset managers and asset owners who collaborate to engage corporations on environmental, social and governance issues – the group has a more powerful voice to encourage the SEC to consider their concerns.

“The pay ratio rule is about common sense transparency to improve corporate governance and ultimately company performance,” said Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility CEO Josh Zinner. “It is also fundamentally about companies reflecting on and reckoning with the vast, widening gap between CEO and worker pay and how that contributes to income inequality in our society.”

ICCR includes members from a variety of faith backgrounds that share a common desire to use their investments toward the greater good.

“Inequality is a societal problem addressed by all ethical traditions,” said Azzad President and CEO Bashar Qasem. Azzad is a faith-based mutual fund company rooted in the Islamic traditions. “Islamic teachings decry the hoarding of wealth, which prevents the circulation of capital and its contribution to the real economy. To the extent that the pay ratio disclosure rule helps to counter inequality through transparency it is imperative that all people of conscience endorse its objectives.”