The Trump-aligned conservative group founded by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller, sued 3 of the 4 largest airlines in November for racist and sexist discrimination:
“Major corporations think that it’s OK to have goals for the demographic makeup of their workforces, with no self-awareness of the illegal practices that they will undoubtedly take to achieve those goals,” Gene Hamilton, America First Legal’s general counsel and vice president, said in a statement Wednesday. “When you board a plane, the last thing you care about is the skin color of the pilot and crew on board.”
For a few months, there was a contentious argument in the media:
- How right-wing influencers turned airplanes and airports into culture war battlegrounds (NBC News)
- Conservative group takes aim at DEI policies of 3 major airlines (HR Dive)
- Conservatives Are So Scared of Diversity They’re Starting to Boycott ‘Woke’ Airlines (Rolling Stone)
- Elon Musk Attacks Airlines’ Dei Efforts, Prompting Criticism From Civil Rights Leaders (Black Enterprise)
Curiously, Delta Air Lines was not included in the suit even though they publish regular ‘Closing the Gap’ reports which “tracks the gap between the diversity of hourly wage earners, or frontline talent, and leadership within the company, a prescriptive approach to increase equitable access to career growth at every level of Delta’s workforce.”
While the suits are still pending, so far all 4 airlines have maintained their commitments and their business have not been affected. And interest in the subject has waned based on Google searches for ‘airlines DEI’:
However, we thought it was a great opportunity to look at a comparison of the 4 largest US airlines in terms of their HCM and DEI practices and benchmarks.
American Airlines leads in our measure of transparency, with an overall score of 60/100 vs. the mean S&P 500 score of 46.4 and the Industrials sector of 31.8. Southwest is the only one of the 4 (and in the roughly 18% of S&P 500 companies) that don’t disclose their eeo-1 data.
In terms of Board diversity, each has shown improvement since 2020, but United is the only one with a commitment to a diverse slate for the recruitment of new directors (a.k.a. Rooney Rule). Delta is the only company with no diversity in its executive ranks, with all 5 NEOs white men.
Looking at workforce representation, American Airlines leads when it comes to people of color at senior leadership levels, while Southwest trails significantly.
Finally, when it comes to employee ratings Delta and Southwest are clear standouts, with American Airlines a distant 4th.
