For the first time, Uber will tie bonuses for it top executives to diversity goals aimed at increasing female and minority representation within the company, the ride-hailing giant said on Monday.
The policy was announced in Uber's 2019 Diversity Report, which found that while the company is still heavily made up of white and Asian men, it has made progress in creating a more diverse workforce.
The goals tied to bonuses included increasing the percentage of women at Uber's upper levels to 35 percent or above, and the percentage of underrepresented employees at mid-level positions to at least 14 percent by 2022.
"Creating the most diverse and inclusive workplace on the planet won't be possible if we settle for small, incremental changes," Bo Young Lee, Uber's chief diversity and inclusion officer, wrote in the report.
The bonus policy will apply to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Chief Legal Officer Tony West, and Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai, among others. An Uber spokesperson declined to clarify how much of bonuses will be tied to the goals.
"This lack of transparency makes me wonder if this is really just for PR and if they're gaming the system and trying to put out metrics that will work for them and aren't actually going to work for their employees," Ellen Pao, an author and the co-founder of the diversity consulting organization Project Include, told Cheddar.
Uber's diversity report found that the total population of women in the company grew by 42.3 percent in the last year, with an over 7 percent jump in leadership roles. Women now make up just over 40 percent of all employees worldwide.
Also in the past year, the number of African American employees and Hispanic/Latinx employees in the U.S increased by 44.5 percent and nearly 75 percent, respectively, with the most notable growth in technology jobs. Both demographics, however, make up less than 10 percent each of all U.S. employees. Uber ($UBER) remains 44.7 percent white and 33 percent Asian, the report added.
"It is better incrementality, but I think there is so much more they could be doing and they should be doing," Pao said, adding that the bonuses for executives on the tech side of the business should also be tied to diversity.
On Monday, the company also announced news guidelines to support transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming employees.
Uber's report comes just a week after Facebook ($FB) released its 2019 diversity report. The social media platform reported that its U.S. employees were 44.2 percent white and 43 percent Asian — less than 7 percent were either black or hispanic. The company is also over 63 percent male and roughly 37 percent female.
"All of these companies still need a lot of help," Pao said. "It is a warning of the early startup CEOs that you need to do all of this work early on in order to prevent getting to the stage were it gets harder and harder."
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A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
