PayPal

PayPal has committed to integrating accessible design principles in its products and has products that accommodate users with disabilities. PayPal also discloses the percentage of its global workforce with disabilities.

PayPal has various initiatives that enhance women’s access to digital skills. Through its partnership with the women’s network Akina Dada wa Africa, PayPal employees provide professional development and technical skills workshops, as well as career mentoring to migrant women in Ireland. In Singapore, the company’s Women Luminaries Program offers opportunities for female undergraduates to develop technical and leadership skills. Paypal also supports digital access for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by partnering with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) to provide education, training and capacity building, as well as helping them to scale their businesses across global markets using digital platforms.

PayPal demonstrates strong commitment to cybersecurity by publishing a high-level statement on its webpage, assigning clear roles and responsibilities for cybersecurity oversight and management and having a dedicated security incident response team. The company is also on the Board of Advisors to the PCI Security Standards Council and a member of the Internet Watch Foundation. Additionally, it partners with the company HackerOne to engage the cybersecurity community through a Bug Bounty programme. PayPal is a member of The Tech Coalition, where it works collaboratively with several internet-based companies to prevent and eradicate online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Moreover, it engages regularly with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to discuss emerging trends and collaborate on opportunities.

PayPal supports the tech start-up ecosystem through its venture capital fund PayPal Ventures, which has made more than 50 investments from two funds totalling USD 850 million as of 2021. The company supports open innovation through collaboration with universities in research areas like anti-phishing and passwordless authentication. Notably, it provides extensive support for minority-led ventures and non-profits. For instance, in 2021, PayPal invested USD 50 million in 11 minority-led early-stage venture capital funds. The company also partnered with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women to provide mentorship to female entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, PayPal funded and led the formation of the Climate Innovation for Adaptation and Resilience (CIFAR) Alliance, which convened experts from the Better Than Cash Alliance, BFA Global, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, PayPal, the United Nations Race to Resilience and the World Resources Institute to explore opportunities for digital finance innovations to power greater climate resilience around the world.

PayPal has an opportunity to contribute to digital inclusion for people from vulnerable groups by organising relevant initiatives. Except for community investments, PayPal does not disclose how the economic value it generates is distributed across all its stakeholders (even though it includes the relevant indicator in its GRI index). Furthermore, it does not disclose the taxes it pays and its employment in its main markets of operation.

While PayPal has various programmes supporting digital skills development for women, it has an opportunity to conduct third-party assessments to understand the impact of these initiatives.

PayPal has an opportunity to enhance transparency by publicly disclosing its information security management certification, reporting data breaches according to international norms and disclosing government requests it receives for user information. While PayPal partners with third parties on child online safety, it has an opportunity to make a high-level commitment to child online safety.

PayPal can support sustainable innovation through a commitment to open-source initiatives and by making big data sets publicly available. It can also report how it considers ethics and human rights in its research and development (R&D) activities. Additionally, the company can enhance transparency by making its AI guidelines publicly available.

PayPal commits to respecting human rights in a public policy document. However, the company’s commitment to respect the ILO core labour rights can be stronger. For example, the company does not provide a policy statement committing to uphold the four human rights laid out by the ILO (i.e., the rights not to be subject to forced labour or child labour, and the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining). PayPal has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints. The company also identifies and assesses the salient human rights issues in its own operations, but it does not disclose how it integrates the findings of these assessments into relevant processes, nor does it disclose how it engages with affected stakeholders.

PayPal publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety and places this expectation on its business relationships. However, it does not disclose quantitative information on health and safety, such as the number and rate of fatalities. The company also does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours. Nor does it explicitly state that it requires its business relationships to make this commitment. Further, while PayPal has a financial wellness initiative which aims to increase the net disposable income for hourly and entry-level employees in the US, it does not disclose a time-bound target to pay its global workforce a living wage. PayPal demonstrates strong commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment by signing up to the Women Empowerment Principles, setting time-bound targets, as well as having more than 30% women on its board. The company also discloses the proportion of employees in different employee categories by gender and ethnicity. However, it can also report employee breakdowns against more indicators of diversity, such as age group.

PayPal has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. While the company discloses the income taxes it pays in three categories – federal, state and foreign – it does not disclose the income tax payments it makes in individual tax jurisdictions. PayPal does disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. However, it does not publicly indicate that it does not make political contributions, nor does it disclose its lobbying expenditures.