Uber ties some executive pay to diversity goals

Uber has said it will link pay for some senior executives to progress made toward improving diversity.

Diversity will be used as one "key metric" to assess performance and determine executive compensation for senior leaders, the firm said.

The policy also sets a target to increase the number of women in senior roles to 35% by 2022.

Other tech firms including Microsoft have also tied some executive pay to improving diversity.

"From our corporate offices to our driver-partners across the globe, diversity is one of our greatest assets," Uber said in its 2019 diversity report.

The ride-hailing firm said "progress on measurable diversity and inclusion goals" would become one factor used to "evaluate job performance and determine executive compensation".

In addition to increasing the number of women at higher levels, Uber said it wanted grow the number of "underrepresented employees" at lower grades to 14%.

The report did not give further details on how executive compensation would be calculated if senior leaders failed to meet diversity targets.

The Silicon Valley firm has been seeking to improve its performance on diversity and inclusion in recent years, following widespread accusations of chauvinism at the company under former chief executive Travis Kalanick.

In 2017, former US Attorney General Eric Holder was hired to conduct an investigation into Uber's gender policy, which led to 20 people being fired.

Under chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi the firm has overhauled its hiring, review and compensation practices, but has continued to face problems.

Uber has had a tough year with a disappointing flotation in May and with recent figures showing it posted a $1bn (£799m) loss.

It has also faced a series of scandals, including two women being sexually assaulted by one of its driver and a passenger kidnapping.