How Nike Is Progressing on DEI Goals, and the 2025 Targets It Has Already Hit
Nike increased the percentage of U.S. racial and ethnic minorities at the director level and above to 34.5% in 2022, ahead of its goal to hit 30% by 2025.
That’s according to the company’s fiscal year 2022 Impact Report, which tracks progress in the company’s larger goals related to diversity, equity, sustainability and employee experience. The report marks the second year of progress towards the company’s previously outlined targets for 2025.
According to the report, Nike also hit 38.8% representation of U.S. racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. corporate workforce in 2022, a 4.3 percentage point increase from the prior year and ahead of the 2025 target of 35% representation.
Like other companies in recent years, Nike has stepped up its efforts to improve diversity and gender equity within its ranks, following criticism in 2020 and an admittance that it had fallen short of DEI progress internally. In the summer of 2020 following widespread protests over racial injustice, a social media account called “Black at Nike” published stories of purported worker experiences at the Swoosh and highlighted accounts of micro-aggressions and alleged racism.
In 2020, Nike was also one of the first major corporations to publicly speak out regarding racism in America with the tagline, “For once, don’t do it.” Shortly after, Nike, along with Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand, committed $140 million with toward the fight for racial equality. As part of these broader committments, Nike in 2022 invested $10 million to support 11 national that prioritize social justice reform. And in 2o21 ,Nike outlined its goals for 2025, which are reflected in the 2022 report..
Beyond its Impact Report, Nike has committed to release data pertaining to recruitment and promotion rates of its diverse employees — across gender, race, and ethnicity — by 2024, following activit pressure from shareholder advocacy group As You Sow and consultancy Whistle Stop Capital.
Nike referenced other 2025 goals such as having 100% of VPs complete “Inclusive Leadership” training and spending a total of $1 billion on diverse suppliers. In fiscal year 2022, 45% of VPs completed the training and Nike spent $777 million on diverse suppliers.
When it comes to gender equity, representation of women in Nike’s global corporate workforce increased by 0.7% to 51.1% in 2022, which surpassed the company’s target of 50% representation of women in these roles by 2025. The percentage of women in leadership roles grew from 43% in 2021 to 44.1% in 2022, less than 1 percentage point away from its 45% target for 2025.
In the report, Nike also highlighted certain initiatives like the expansion of its Women in Nike (WIN) program for retired WNBA players and employee network group meant to support and invest in women at Nike.
Another goal for Nike is to maintain 100% pay equity across all employee levels on a yearly basis, which Nike said it has achieved every year since 2020.
In April of 2018, Nike admitted that it had fallen short in promoting women and people of color, and in July, it announced a plan to raise salaries for 10% of its workforce to help correct pay inequity. Nike is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed in August 2018 by two former female Nike employees, which alleges that the company “intentionally and willfully” discriminated against women with regard to pay and promotions, and that its majority-male executives fostered a hostile work environment at its Portland, Ore., headquarters.
Just this week, an Oregon judge ruled that the lawsuit would not be eligible as a class action suit.
