Asian Americans Climb the Corporate Ladder, But Only So High
- Asians make up 12% of U.S. professionals, 5% of executives
- A challenge to typical corporate diversity initiatives
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In the U.S., people whose family origins trace to a vast swath of the globe are lumped under the demographic category of “Asian.” Members of the group don’t have much in common, with one exception: They tend to be notably absent at the highest levels of corporate America.
Across America’s big corporations, Asian Americans get hired at a much higher rate than their proportion of the general U.S. population, which is about 6 percent. The group makes up more than 20 percent of the student body at some of the elite colleges and universities that shoot graduates up the corporate ladder -- and a recent lawsuit suggests that percentage could be a lot higher.