At Wal-Mart, 14% of senior managers hired last year were women of color.

As the nation’s biggest employer of women and people of color, this retail giant strives to retain and promote that talent. Examples are everywhere: from Jo LaFayette, the firm’s African-American vice president of diversity programming and strategy, who got her start as an hourly associate, to Grace Alvarado, who worked her way up from part-time associate at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart, to become manager of its biggest U.S. store. In fact, women of color make up nearly one fifth of Wal-Mart’s top earners, and they are a growing presence in the upper ranks, too, representing 8% of senior managers and 4% of corporate executives. And these ranks are growing: Last year, for example, 14% of senior managers hired were women of color. The company sets annual goals for recruiting and retaining diverse candidates and cuts the bonuses of officers and managers by as much as 15% if they don’t meet diversity goals.

Multicultural Women: 21%

Multicultural Women Managers/Execs: 9%

President and CEO: Mike Duke

Hires who are multicultural women: 23%

Hires who are multicultural men: 19%

Multicultural women managers/execs: 9%

Multicultural men managers/execs: 11%

Top 20% earners who are multicultural women: 18%

Top 20% earners who are multicultural men: 21%

Multicultural women on board of directors: 7%

Offers formal compensation program to reward managers who specifically help multicultural women advance: NO

Rates managers on the number of multicultural women employees advancing: YES

Uses outside recruiter to focus on finding multicultural women candidates: YES

Offers support groups specifically for multicultural women: NO

Offers mentoring programs specifically geared toward multicultural women early in their careers: NO

Offers sponsorship program specifically geared toward multicultural women early in their careers: NO