Pandora's New Diversity Report Reveals The Company Is Almost 50% Female, But Mostly White

Pandora Media released its diversity report on Thursday, in line with the trend of other companies like Pinterest and Facebook releasing theirs.

Pandora's findings reveal the company is, overall, 50.8% male and 49.2% female - but it's also overwhelmingly 70.9% white.

According to company statistics, 12.3% of Pandora's employees are Asian, 7.2% are Hispanic/Latino, 3% are Black or African-American, 1% are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 1% identify as two or more races.

The statistics in Pandora's diversity report reflect gender statistics for Pandora's global workforce and racial statistics for its US workforce.

Pandora's leadership demographics show a little less gender diversity and even less racial diversity. Pandora says 61.2% of employees in leadership positions are men, and 38.8% are women. A whopping 84.6% of Pandora's leadership is white.

Pandora's tech workforce is 82.1% male and 17.9% female, indicative of a larger and more problematic trend in the tech industry. Its tech employees are 62.1% white, 26% Asian, 3.9% Hispanic/Latino, 2.8% Black/African American, 0.4% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 4.9% of Pandora's tech employees claim two or more races.

Women outnumber men in Pandora's non-tech positions, 57.8% to 42.2%. Pandora's non-tech employees reflect the racial disparity present among other parts of the company, with 73.4% of its employees in non-tech positions reported as white.

Pandora's founder Tim Westergren posted a statement about Pandora's diversity on LinkedIn:

When I think about all the different kinds of people who are listening to Pandora across the globe, our employees should look like them. The diversity of our audience and artists are a great benchmark for us to use as we evaluate our own company. And it's clear there's work to be done.

We've set our sights on building a company that will last a hundred years, and we need a plan for developing and supporting a workforce that reflects our audience; one that is as welcoming of all professionals as our service is of all listeners.

It's interesting that Pandora's staff is so predominantly white. Pandora's offices are located in the racially diverse neighborhood of Oakland, where, according to USA Today, "blacks make up nearly a third of the population, and Hispanics, a quarter."

Pandora's racial disparity in such a diverse area isn't lost on Westergren:

Pandora was founded in Oakland, which is one of the most diverse places in the world. We get to eat Ethiopian and Jamaican food for lunch, we catch Latin music when we take walks around the office, and at the end of this month, our employees will march in Oakland Pride and see Pandora's company sign right above them on our building.

We choose to connect to our community; to be of our community. Every Pandora employee receives a week of paid volunteer time off a year. They use this time to work with schools like Futures Elementary, TechBridge, and groups like Girls Inc., and The Boys and Girls Club of West Oakland. And we can do more.

As we pursue this mission we want to hear from organizations that are passionate about this subject. If you work with such organizations, we want to hear from you.