Lyft finally releases a diversity report

Lyft just released its first-ever diversity report, a couple of months after Uber released its first one. Lyft, which committed to releasing a report last June, says it will continue to release reports annually.

Here are some high-level stats. Lyft is 63 percent white, 19 percent Asian, 6 percent black and 7 percent Latinx. Uber, on the other hand, is 49.8 percent white, 30.9 percent Asian, 8.8 percent black and 5.6 percent Hispanic. So, yes, Lyft is whiter than Uber, but Lyft employs more people who identify as female than Uber, with 42 percent of Lyft’s staff identifying as female. At Uber, women make up 36.1 percent of its workforce.

Lyft also breaks down its employee population by leadership and tech roles. At the leadership level, 36 percent of Lyft’s employees identify as female, 18 percent are Asian, 1 percent are black, 5 percent are Latinx and 70 percent are white.

Some data points missing from the report are stats around the employment of LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and intersectional data.

As I’ve said before, I have mixed feelings about diversity reports because the existence of them hasn’t led to any notable improvements in the tech industry. But at the end of the day, they do help hold companies accountable. So, kudos to Lyft for finally releasing one.

“Releasing our data will hold us accountable, but it’s the actions we take that will make a difference to the people who come to work every day at Lyft,” Lyft wrote on its blog. “Our diversity data exposes gaps in important areas. So we’re doing something about it.”

Lyft noted how it hired Tariq Meyers, who formerly worked as a community affairs organizer at Lyft, to lead its diversity and inclusion department last year. Lyft also pointed to the fact that it’s been working with diversity consulting company Paradigm to identify additional opportunities to attract, select, develop and retain diverse employees.

Lyft’s report comes the same week Uber’s board of directors is supposed to receive Eric Holder’s report about workplace culture in light of sexual harassment allegations from Susan Fowler-Rigetti.