Last Updated:
5/1/21 10:05 AM
overall rating:
do better
Wayfair
Internal Representation & Support
40%
Public Commitment
20%
External Communication
30%
To evaluate this pillar, we take into consideration a range of factors, including but not limited to:
- Employee representation
- Diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI)
We weigh a company’s degree of public commitment primarily on their monetary contributions to DEI matters or organizations fighting racial injustice.
Forms of monetary support we look for:
One-off donations
Recurring donations
Grant initiatives
Employee donation matching
Highlights
We have not identified any notable highlights for this company.
Lowlights
Aside from doubling its employee donations for 30 days in June, Wayfair has not provided evidence of any concrete commitment—monetary or otherwise—to supporting anti-racist efforts, and its social media only shows one Blackout Tuesday post. In addition, in 2019, CEO Niraj Shah was denounced by employees for selling furniture to border camps housing migrant children. In response to protests, Wayfair leadership defended their actions and stated that refusing to fulfill legally placed orders would be "discriminatory".
We scour the company’s website and official social media channels to determine what message they are sending around racial injustice, how they are communicating it, and whether their communications are perceived as genuine or performative.
Public statement: We verify that companies have made a formal statement regarding racial injustice.
Social media: We consider how a company uses their platform(s) beyond performative allyship.
Representation: For companies that have the opportunity to showcase diversity in their feed, we consider whether they have adequate Black representation and BIPOC representation across their models.
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Deep Dive
I. Internal Representation & Support:
Board of Directors:
10% - 11% Black, > 40% BIPOC, 31% - 35% Women
Executive Leadership:
0% (none) Black, 11% - 15% BIPOC, 0% (none) Women
Information not publicly available
Workforce:
An appointed DEI senior leader and/or a dedicated DEI organization, A Black employee resource group
DEI Support:
II. Public Commitment
Wayfair has little to no evidence of any monetary commitment publicly available.
III. External Communications
Wayfair has issued a public statement, both on social media and in a public memo, addressing racial injustice ; however, it did not acknowledge that they can be doing better to combat racial inequality within their company, include specific calls to action, or explicitly state "Black Lives Matter." Since June 2020, 0.1% - 9% of the brand's social media content has been centered around racial injustice having only posted a "Blackout Tuesday" post. While the brand does not regularly feature models in their social media posts, there is little to no evidence of additional actions the brand takes to show support of the LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities.
