Eastern Bank is pleased to announce that for the eleventh consecutive year, it received a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2025 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Eastern joins 765 U.S. businesses that also earned top marks this year.

“At Eastern, advancing LGBTQ+ equality, both within and outside our organization, is a focus we have supported for many years,” said Bob Rivers, Executive Chair and Chair of the Board of Directors of Eastern Bank. “The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s leadership and advocacy are fundamental to helping all people prosper, and we are honored by their continued recognition of our efforts to create greater opportunity for our LGBTQ+ colleagues and the communities we serve through our workplace practices, benefits and policies, advocacy, volunteerism and Eastern Bank Foundation philanthropy.”

Eastern has been a corporate leader in supporting equality initiatives through corporate practices and community collaborations. This includes providing healthcare insurance inclusive of transgender-related care and gender-affirming services, embedding inclusivity into training programs, and offering the Equity Alliance for Business to advance growth opportunities for underserved business owners, including in the LGBTQ+ community. Eastern’s “Equality Under the Blue” Employee Resource Group meets regularly with senior leadership on issues of importance to the LGBTQ+ community, and helps to organize workplace practices as well as various community events including Pride events each June across the communities Eastern serves.

The results of the 2025 CEI showcase how U.S.-based companies are promoting LGBTQ+ friendly workplace policies. The CEI rates employers providing crucial protections to more than 22 million U.S. workers and includes Fortune magazine’s 500 largest publicly traded businesses, American Lawyer magazine’s top 200 revenue-grossing law firms, and hundreds of publicly and privately held mid- to large-sized businesses. The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

• Non-discrimination policies across business entities;
• Equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families;
• Supporting an inclusive culture; and,
• Corporate social responsibility.

Eastern’s efforts in satisfying all the CEI’s criteria earned a score of 100 and the designation as recipient of the Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion. The full report is available online at //www.hrc.org/cei.