As companies across the U.S. face heightened scrutiny of their record on racial diversity, Target (NYSE:TGT) pledged Thursday to increase representation of black employees across its workforce by 20% over the next three years.
The big-box retailer’s workforce of nearly 350,000 employees skews White, particularly among its top executives. About 75% of its leadership team is white and 8% is black, based on 2019 data. That rises to nearly a quarter, however, when including all people of colour like Latinos and Asians. Its overall workforce — which includes hourly store employees who stock shelves and check out customers — is more mixed, with 50% made up of white workers, 25% Latino and 15% black, as the top three groups.
While pledging to do better, Target referred to strides it has made. It said it has doubled representation of company non-white officers in the past five years to nearly 30%. Of that, though, only 5% are black.
It also touted diversity among store managers: More than half of its stores are run by women and a third are managed by people of color.
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has a larger U.S. workforce than Target. About 21% of its employees across the country are black and 16% are Latino, according to a midyear report that came out this week. About 12% of managers and 7% of its officers are black.
In the U.S., African Americans make up more than 13% of the population, according to the Census Bureau.
TGT shares dropped five cents to $147.64.