Wal-Mart makes its diversity case

Wal-Mart has opened its books to show exactly how many women and minorities in the U.S. work for the world's largest employer.

It's the first time it has released the data it files each year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Wal-Mart's move comes amid calls from religious investors and workers rights groups for the Bentonville, Ark.-based company to prove it is meeting verbal commitments to increase diversity and prevent discrimination.

Wal-Mart also faces a class-action discrimination lawsuit on behalf of all current and former U.S. female employees.

The report for 2005 showed 32% of the 1.34 million Wal-Mart employees in the U.S. were minorities.
That level varied by occupational group, including 21% of top officers and managers, 20% of professionals and 33% of sales workers.

Women accounted for 60% of the overall work force, 39% of officers and managers and 75% of sales workers.

The report did not provide comparative data for previous years.

The publication of the 2005 employment data comes a year after Wal-Mart first provided a summary of some of those numbers, but not the full report, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said.

"This year is another step toward being a more transparent corporation in all aspects of our business, including diversity," spokeswoman Sarah Clark said.

CEO Lee Scott said in an executive summary Wal-Mart last year expanded diversity targets for managers from a group of 3,500 officers and senior managers to include more than 51,000 store-level managers. Scott said the goals were all met, but did not elaborate.