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Human Rights

Protecting human rights is fundamental to Hershey’s long-term success and resilience.

Person working in a Hershey plant looking at Hershey's Kisses

For more than 130 years, we have operated our business understanding that we are integral members of the communities where we live and work. As we pursue our goal to lead the future of snacking, our commitments to human rights and responsible sourcing remain central. Working closely with industry, civil society and government partners, we will continue to build resilience throughout our value chain.

Our Human Rights Policy outlines our commitment to respecting human rights throughout our value chain, including efforts to prevent and address modern slavery and forced labor. This policy is core to our sustainability strategy and is regularly updated in consultation with stakeholders including suppliers, human rights groups, nonprofit organizations working in our raw material value chains, government representatives and labor organizations.

To learn more, read our policy, which is also available in French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Hindi.

Our Human Rights Due Diligence Approach

We implement our human rights strategy through due diligence processes based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (OECD Guidelines).

To enable people to exercise their fundamental human rights, we regularly identify, evaluate and prioritize action on the most significant, relevant risks through our six-step Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) process.

  1. Embed responsible business conduct into public commitments, policies and procedures: Hershey embeds responsible business conduct across our value chain through a comprehensive suite of policies, governance structures and internal expectations that guide our HRDD. Our Code of Conduct, Human Rights Policy, Supplier Code of Conduct, Responsible Recruitment & Employment Policy, and ingredient-specific sourcing policies outline standards prohibiting forced labor, child labor, and other human rights issues.
  2. Identify & assess risks and adverse impacts: Hershey follows a risk assessment process to identify and document potential human and environmental risks and adverse impacts across our value chain. This includes saliency assessments as well as country, ingredient, and supplier specific assessments.
  3. Cease, prevent or mitigate risks and adverse impacts; conduct supplier outreach and collaboration: Hershey’s HRDD programs are informed by the risk assessment results. Programs and interventions are intended to cease, prevent, and mitigate identified risks and adverse impacts in our Owned Operations, Tier 1 supply chain, and priority upstream ingredient supply chains.
  4. Track progress towards commitments and compliance with regulations: Hershey’s HRDD program and intervention results are tracked for effective management and to support continuous improvement.
  5. Address grievances and enable access to remediation in an appropriate manner: Hershey provides access to grievance mechanisms and remediation to employees, suppliers, workers in our value chain, and external stakeholders through the following channels, such as our Concern Line.
  6. Report progress and assess system for improvements: Our company regularly reports on our HRDD processes and responsible sourcing practices to enable transparency and accountability. We also evaluate our HRDD system against international standards such as the UNGPs and OECD Guidelines. We communicate progress annually through our Statement Against Slavery and Human Trafficking, Responsible Business Report, and website disclosures.

Our Salient Issues

Our Human Rights Policy identifies and prioritizes the most significant human rights risks throughout our value chain as identified in our most recent saliency assessment (in alphabetical order):

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Access to water and sanitation: Sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal use and sanitation services that are safe, physically accessible, and ensure privacy and dignity.

person with shovel

Child Labor: As defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), child labor is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and is harmful to their physical and mental development.

person waving

Discrimination: The risk that individuals or groups experience unequal treatment, barriers, or exclusion based on gender, race or ethnicity, or other protected categories.

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Forced Labor: As defined by the ILO, this includes work or service that is obtained from any person under the threat of penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily.

heart with a medical sign

Health and safety: A safe and healthy workplace in both our own business and in our supply chains in line with applicable safety and health laws and in consultation with rightsholders.

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Land rights and acquisition: Customary land rights, including the fulfillment of respecting rights for Indigenous Peoples, local communities and farmers to give Free, Prior and Informed Consent, for acquisition and development.

hand holding a coin

Living wage and income: A wage and/or income level that allows all members of the household to afford a decent standard of living.

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Resilient environment: The impacts of climate change, land-use, and environmental degradation on the resilience and well‑being of people and communities.

Man inspecting trees

Living Wage and Income

Hershey believes that every person deserves an opportunity to earn a decent living. We recognize the concepts of living wage and living income as human rights for people working for Hershey directly or within our value chain. We also understand that poverty increases the risk of human rights violations.

Hershey continues to advance living wage initiatives through our investments in the broader living wage landscape such as:

  • Serving as a founding member of WageMap, which works to create visibility and consistency in the living wage landscape
  • Contributing to the funding of the Living Wage for U.S. Remuneration Tool and Wage Indicator’s free publication of living wage data
  • Participating in the AIM-Progress Living Wage working group

For more information, see our Living Wage page.

Responsible Recruitment

Hershey does not tolerate child or forced labor in our operations and value chain. 

One of the ways we combat forced labor is through our commitment to responsible recruitment and employment, and our endorsement of the Priority Industry Principles and the Employer Pays Principle. While the causes of forced labor are complex, Hershey recognizes the importance of promoting responsible recruitment and employment practices to ensure that no workers in our supply chain find themselves in situations of forced labor. Read more about our Responsible Recruitment Policy.

We also monitor labor standards in our Tier 1 supply chain through our Responsible Sourcing Supplier Program. 

Groups of people in other countries
The Future of Cocoa Farming Communities Starts with Access to Education

Since our founding 130 years ago, Hershey has continued work to expand the education system in cocoa-farming communities in West Africa.

Human Rights Resources

The Company
Experience Hershey
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