Paychex Named a World's Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute for the Ninth Time

ROCHESTER, NY--(Marketwired - March 14, 2017) - Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, HR, retirement, and insurance services, has again been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2017 World's Most Ethical Company®.

This is the ninth year Paychex has received this honor, and the company is one of only two in the business services industry, underscoring its commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices.

"We consider integrity to be a foundational value that drives our company's culture," said Paychex president and CEO Martin Mucci. "The collective integrity of our 14,000 employees, combined with the business practices we adhere to, are critical to our success -- and a reason why small businesses across the country allow Paychex to provide their payroll, human resource, retirement, and insurance services. I'm very proud of our employees, who make it a point to do the right thing every day for their clients, their co-workers, and for the communities where they live and work."

This marks the 11^th year that Ethisphere has honored those companies that recognize their role in society to influence and drive positive change; consider the impact of their actions on their employees, investors, customers, and other key stakeholders; and use their values and culture as an underpinning to the decisions they make every day.

"Over the last 11 years we have seen the shift in societal expectations, constant redefinition of laws and regulations and the geo-political climate. We have also seen how companies honored as the World's Most Ethical respond to these challenges. They invest in their local communities around the world, embrace strategies of diversity and inclusion, and focus on long term-ism as a sustainable business advantage," explained Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. "Congratulations to everyone at Paychex for being recognized as a World's Most Ethical Company."

Methodology & Scoring
The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient^® (EQ) framework which offers a quantitative way to assess a company'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.

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%) and provided to all companies who participate in the process.

Honorees

The full list of the 2017 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://worldsmostethicalcompanies.ethisphere.com/honorees/.

About Paychex
Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX) is a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, HR, retirement, and insurance services. By combining its innovative software-as-a-service technology and mobility platform with dedicated, personal service, Paychex empowers small- and medium-sized business owners to focus on the growth and management of their business. Backed by 45 years of industry expertise, Paychex serves approximately 605,000 payroll clients across more than 100 locations and pays one out of every 12 American private sector employees. Learn more about Paychex by visiting www.paychex.com, and stay connected on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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 ssexpertise 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. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com.

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Paychex Media Contact:
Becky Cania
Manager of Employee and Corporate Communications
585-387-6337
[e-mail]
@PaychexNews

Ethisphere Media Contact:
Clea Nabozny
480.397.2658
[e-mail]