Today, the Center for Union Facts launched a billboard in Times Square asking if Amalgamated Bank — where the SEIU affiliate union Workers United is the largest shareholder — is Male, Pale, and Stale. Workers United is the union behind efforts to organize Stabucks workers throughout the county.

The billboard highlights the findings of the third in a series of reports that was also released this week by CUF. The report focused on diversity in the Bank’s leadership. The findings were eye opening.

In 2020 and 2021, Amalgamated Bank dedicated sections in its Corporate Social Responsibility Reports solely to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Bank stated that it was dedicated to “expanding diversity among the decision makers in each area of the Bank.” It also claimed that “diversity has always been a critical part of our heritage and identity.”

We evaluated these claims by analyzing workplace demographic data the Bank filed with the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – these are called EEO-1 reports. We averaged out the employment data from 2017 through 2021 – 2022 is not yet available – to analyze the Bank’s diversity profile, specifically among upper management.

The data shows that the Bank’s executive/senior management positions were – on average – 81% White and 72% male between 2017 and 2021. It also shows that diversity drops significantly at the highest compensated/managerial positions within the Bank.

The Bank stated in 2021 that it is “focused on further diversifying senior management in the coming years,” and indeed appears to have increased executive diversity in 2022. Future EEO reports will reveal whether those changes are statistically meaningful.

Key Takeaways:

• White employees made up – on average – 81% of executive/senior management at Amalgamated Bank between 2017 and 2021.
• On average, Black, Hispanic, and Asian employees accounted for just 13% of executive/senior management at the Bank. This is substantially lower than minority representation in lower paying positions at the Bank.
• Women made up – on average –  just 28% of executive/senior management between 2017 and 2021.
• The Bank’s employment numbers show that there is less minority representation for employees as you move farther along the upper management structure.