Paychex Named as a World’s Most Ethical Company for the Seventh Time

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of payroll, human resource, insurance, and benefits outsourcing solutions for America’s businesses, has been recognized by The Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company^®.

The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

Being a seven-year honoree underscores Paychex’s commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value to key stakeholders, including customers, investors, and employees. Paychex is one of only two companies in the outsourcing services category honored this year.

“Our clients trust Paychex to act with uncompromising integrity, which is the foundation of our ability to provide businesses with the very best payroll, HR, and benefits outsourcing service,” said Paychex president and chief executive officer Martin Mucci. “This honor gives all of us at Paychex great pride, and is a direct result of our employees’ commitment to living our integrity value in their daily interactions with clients and fellow employees.”

“The World’s Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing,” said Ethisphere’s chief executive officer, Timothy Erblich. “Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at Paychex for this extraordinary achievement.”

The World’s Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of effort to provide a means to assess an organization’s performance in an objective, consistent, and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance, and ethics. The EQ framework and methodology was determined, vetted, and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere’s network of thought leaders and from the World’s Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%); corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%); culture of ethics (20%); governance (15%); and leadership, innovation, and reputation (10%).

The full list of the 2015 World’s Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

About Paychex

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) is a leading provider of payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses. The company offers comprehensive payroll services, including payroll processing, payroll tax administration, and employee pay services, including direct deposit, check signing, and Readychex^®. Human resource services include 401(k) plan recordkeeping, section 125 plans, a professional employer organization, time and attendance solutions, and other administrative services for business. A variety of business insurance products, including group health and workers' compensation, are made available through Paychex Insurance Agency, Inc. Paychex was founded in 1971. With headquarters in Rochester, New York, the company has more than 100 offices serving approximately 580,000 payroll clients as of May 31, 2014. For more information about Paychex and our products, visit www.paychex.com.

About the Ethisphere Institute

The Ethisphere^® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World’s Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at http://ethisphere.com.

Stay Connected with Paychex

Twitter: www.twitter.com/paychex
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LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/paychex/products

Media
Paychex:
Becky Cania
Manager of Employee and Corporate Communications
585-387-6337, bcania@paychex.com
Twitter: @PaychexNews
or
Media
Ethisphere:
Clea Nabozny
480-397-2658
Clea.Nabozny@ethisphere.com

Source: Paychex, Inc.

Released March 12, 2015