Leading Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Groups Call for Mandatory Public Disclosure of EEOC Diversity Reports

Ascend Asks State Legislators to Require Disclosure of EEO-1 Workforce Reporting in California

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Sep 17, 2019, 08:44 ET

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascend is presenting a letter at a California Senate Select Committee hearing that calls for mandatory disclosure of EEOC reporting for all businesses in California. The letter, co-signed by the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI), the Asian Pacific Island Public Affairs (APAPA), Indiaspora, and the Monte Jade West - Science and Technology Association (MJW), requests the Senate Select Committee on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs to consider legislation requiring large companies doing business in California to disclose race and gender data in the management pipeline.

The September 17 public hearing, conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Asian Pacific Islander (API) Affairs, will feature Ascend and other speakers from legal, entertainment, journalism, and tech to present data and solutions to help break the API glass ceiling, and is being held at the Mountain View offices of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

The API glass ceiling is an overlooked problem in the typical diversity dialogue. However, in analyzing the EEOC database of aggregated EEO-1 reporting and publicly available EEO-1 reports from over 20 Silicon Valley companies, Ascend Foundation research has found that Asians are consistently under-represented in management and executive levels nationally and in Silicon Valley technology companies despite their large numbers in the general workforce. Addressing the advancement issue since its founding, Ascend has been actively delivering leadership development programs for Asian talent from entry level to executives across the country, and working with corporate executives and diversity leaders across the country.

"We have worked with our Fortune 500 sponsors to make progress," said Jeff Chin, Ascend President, "and we know that greater transparency in workforce reporting provides better understanding of diversity challenges at all levels of management. This will help to identify unique issues for each racial group and to create solutions to improve the opportunity for all groups."

Public disclosure of annual EEO-1 reports by companies in California will help to improve the transparency of diversity in companies and address the gaps in leadership diversity for Asians and all racial groups. The EEO-1 report is filed each year by companies with over 100 employees and contains detailed information about a company's US workforce segmented by gender, race, and organizational levels. The mandatory release of the EEO-1 report will provide companies with a simple way to measure and compare executive pipelines across cohorts and companies, by gender and race, and hold companies accountable. These actions will help address the lack of awareness and progress of minority upward mobility and the complexity of workforce diversity.

About Ascend Foundation and Ascend

Ascend Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to educate, advocate, and enable Pan-Asian business leaders to reach their full potential and provide scholarships to honor students who demonstrate scholastic excellence, leadership, and commendable community service. Ascend is the largest, non-profit Pan-Asian membership organization for business professionals in North America. Established in 2005, Ascend, a career lifecycle organization, reaches 60,000+ senior executives, professionals, and MBA/undergraduate students involved in its 50+ chapters in the United States and Canada. Visit http://www.ascendleadership.org for more information.

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SOURCE Ascend