USPS workforce diversity grows, but doesn’t always reflect in leadership ranks

The Postal Service has one of the most diverse workforces in the U.S. and is growing more diverse.

But a recent watchdog report finds USPS workforce diversity doesn’t always reflect in its leadership ranks.

The Government Accountability Office, in a report released last month, found white USPS employees held a disproportionate number of executive positions in fiscal 2022, and that employees of color, in some cases, were less likely to receive promotions into leadership roles.

The report also found that management-level employees from historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups, as well as women managers and managers with disabilities, were generally paid less than their colleagues.

In FY 2022, about 67% of USPS executives were white. For context, white employees make up about 56% of the total USPS workforce.

The report, however, notes USPS has shown improvement in the diversity of its executive ranks since FY 2016, and that its overall workforce is becoming more diverse.

The GAO report found Black and Asian employees at USPS were 40-50% less likely to be promoted to middle-manager roles than their white peers.

GAO, looking at workforce data from fiscal years 2016-2022, also found that Hispanic or Latino employees were 28% less likely to be promoted to middle-manager roles than non-Hispanic or Latino counterparts.

But among the most senior tiers of the USPS workforce, GAO found Black and Asian managers were almost twice as likely as their white counterparts to be promoted to executive positions.

David Marroni, the acting director of GAO’s physical infrastructure team, said in a recent interview that USPS leadership focused on diversifying the candidate pool for its highest-level positions.

“Our results do not prove that that worked, but it shows that the Postal Service can potentially make improvements and changes with the right focus and efforts,” Marroni said.

Jennifer Utterback, USPS vice president for organization development, told GAO that its findings didn’t provide a complete picture of its diversity improvement efforts.

Utterback said USPS promoted American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander employees to frontline supervisor positions at “comparable” rates to their white colleagues.

“In light of the Postal Service’s longstanding commitment to diversity, we have concerns about the representation of our workforce and the sometimes misleading representation of facts throughout the GAO’s report related to our workforce diversity efforts,” she wrote.

USPS met or mostly met five of the nine actions that GAO considers best practices for diversity management in the workplace, and partially met the remaining four.

“Bottom line, the Postal Service has a diverse workforce and an increasingly diverse workforce. I want to give them credit, they have taken a number of actions and followed a number of leading practices to improve the diversity of their workforce. But really, there are still opportunities for them to strengthen their efforts,” Marroni said.

GAO notes that the Postal Service’s 10-year Delivering for America reform plan makes diversity commitments, but found the plan doesn’t specify performance measures for achieving those goals.

“The Postal Service has goals for its DEIA efforts, which contribute to its pipeline of talent to get to the executive level. But it doesn’t have defined performance measures right now to track how are you doing to get to those goals,” Marroni said.

Among its recommendations, GAO recommends USPS gather employee feedback from all career levels and different affinity groups to better assess progress on its workforce diversity goals.

USPS managers, supervisors raise concerns about promotion fairness

In a GAO survey of USPS supervisors and managers, about a third of respondents agreed or “strongly agreed” they were treated unfairly in the USPS promotion process.

About 45% of respondents said they observed coworkers being treated unfairly in the promotion process.

Respondents who reported unfairness in the promotion process cited race and ethnicity, as well as gender, as factors that they believed led to unequal treatment in promotions.

However, nearly half of respondents agreed that most managers “value differences among individuals of different backgrounds.”

More than a third of respondents agreed almost all managers “are held accountable for treating employees fairly, regardless of background.”

Utterback said USPS is also developing a new applicant tracking system, meant to give the agency better data to pinpoint potential barriers in the application and hiring process.

USPS created an Executive Diversity Council in 2021.  Utterback told GAO that the council is focused on increasing diversity in leadership positions through development programs and succession planning.

“We have identified opportunities to improve diversity among our leadership levels,” she wrote.

Utterback told GAO that USPS plans to “continually enhance the diversity of our organization” through targeted recruitment, expanding employee development opportunities and improved leadership training.

USPS, according to a 2020 GAO report, is one nation’s largest employers of minorities, women, veterans, and disabled veterans.

USPS reports having a majority-minority workforce. Employees of color make up about 51.5% of its total workforce.

More than 46% of USPS employees are women. USPS employs more than 70,000 veterans and more than 32,000 employees with disabilities.

“You need a diverse pool at all levels to increase in the organization. And USPS certainly has a diverse workforce— our numbers reflect that in the report — and is increasingly so. The direction is good. It’s more about how can they continue to improve, especially at the executive level and the managerial level?” Marroni said.

GAO also found pay disparities among USPS management ranks.

The report found that management-level employees from historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups, as well as women managers and managers with disabilities, earned 1-7% less than their colleagues.

For example, GAO found that, controlling for variables, including tenure, Black middle managers earned 5% less than their white middle managers —about $3.85 less per hour

“Controlling for these other factors. So that can have a big difference in someone’s weekly yearly pay,” Marroni said.

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