Many workplace to high-paying, executive level jobs for minority groups in recent years.
Several 2020 presidential candidates are putting forward plans to increase minority executive positions by , and .
However, , white men still hold the majority of executive positions such as CEOs, management directors and financial officers.
As economic and communication scholars, we looked at for executives at large and mid-sized companies. Our analysis shows that white men sit in 85% of these high-paying boardroom positions while representing only .
The dominance of white male executives, however, is by no means evenly distributed across the country. Our report tracks representation among Hispanic executives city by city.
C-Suite Inequality
As of 2019, Hispanics are the largest minority group in the U.S. at .
Statistics from 2017 show that Hispanics make up of the labor force. However, they occupy only in the U.S. Hispanic representation is roughly equal to that of black executives and somewhat lower than Asian American executives.
The gap between labor force and executive representation is wider among Hispanics than any other group.
Executive jobs offer salary 鈥� 鈥� benefits and job security that simply are not available in lower level positions. They also offer the power to drive initiatives, including those focused on diversity.
Where Do The Hispanic Executives Work?
Pittsburgh is the only large city in the U.S. to nearly reach equity. Hispanics comprise and 1.4% of its overall labor market.
That low overall representation is a trend among cities with the best equity. Four out of five American cities with the most equitable representation 鈥� Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis and Cincinnati - have Hispanic populations of less than 4%.
These findings fall in line with showing that minority representation in executive positions is highest in areas with the lowest minority population.
The final city in the top five, Miami, stands out for its high representation of Hispanic executives at 24.6% and high percentage of Hispanics in the overall workforce at 44.1%.
Miami is also an anomaly among other large cities with Hispanic work forces such as 鈥� 43% overall labor force and 10.3% executive representation 鈥� and 鈥� 34.2% labor force and 8% executive.
Driving Miami鈥檚 high representation is likely the city鈥檚 , which favors Hispanic cultural background and Spanish language capability among top executives.
This is especially true with regards to the many media-based companies , such as Telemundo, which targets consumers .
Austin ranks 40th among the 50 largest U.S. cities in Hispanic executive representation. Hispanics constitute 29.1% of the overall workforce and hold 7.0% of all executive positions. Those numbers put Austin in line with other cities with large Hispanic workforces and relatively low executive representation such as Houston (ranked 42nd) and Los Angeles (ranked 39th).
Austin does stand in some contrast with its neighbor to the south. San Antonio ranks 12th among the top 50, with Hispanics comprising 20.4% of the city's executives and 53.1% of the overall workforce.
Trends At The Bottom
So how do things look at the other end of the scale?
New York City has the largest Hispanic population in the U.S with 2.3 million individuals. They comprise of 22.6% of , including 28.7% of its service workers and 40% of its laborer positions.
But only 4.5% of New York鈥檚 executives are Hispanic.
New York matters because of the large number of Hispanics who live there and the relative power of its executive positions. In 2019, were headquartered in the city, among them Citibank, Verizon, MetLife and many other major firms.
It鈥檚 unlikely that there is one key factor behind the lack of Hispanic representation in these jobs. One possibility is an entrenched corporate culture in New York . Further, unlike in Miami, Hispanic cultural and linguistic backgrounds .
This, however, shouldn鈥檛 eliminate the possibility for change. New York鈥檚 trade workers 鈥� a group once dominated by white men 鈥� now includes , one of the highest rates in the country. Efforts to develop Hispanic executive candidates similar to Miami鈥檚 or Pittsburgh鈥檚 centered in the city鈥檚 Hispanic Beechwood neighborhood might lead to greater diversification of New York鈥檚 corporate offices.
Rounding out the bottom five are San Jose, Salt Lake City, Hartford and Oklahoma City, all cities with at least 10% Hispanic representation in the labor force.
Diversity Matters
that boardroom diversity can positively impact and job satisfaction within companies, in particular by bridging the divide between company executives and lower level employees.
With recent reports showing nationwide, it鈥檚 particularly important for cities and companies to consider what more can be done to bring more Hispanics into the boardroom.
Cities might bolster Hispanic business participation and entrepreneurship by helping build , and promoting at area universities.
To make change Hispanic workers need to be employed in positions that feed into to the highest company levels. Currently, 8% of all managerial and 6% of all professional positions in the U.S. are Hispanic, far below their labor market share of 17%.
Overriding these discrepancies means that often exclude Hispanic workers, such as non-Latino employers recognizing unconscious biases in their communication styles and providing opportunities to professionally use Hispanic cultural competencies.
These efforts are important nationwide. However, they apply critically in cities such as Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Phoenix, all cities with large and deep-rooted Hispanic populations where representation is lagging.
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is a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at . is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Employment Equity at the . is the research director of the Center for Employment Equity at the .
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