Alaska Airlines earned a score of 100 on HRC’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index
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Alaska Airlines is a long-time supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, our partners and allies alike, and we are committed to creating an environment where our guests, employees and business partners feel included and belong.
Today, we are proud to announce we have achieved a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.
Our improved score, up from 90 for the last few years, reflects our commitment to inclusivity, including reinstating domestic partner benefits, employee toolkits for LGBTQ+ Inclusive Benefits and Guidance to Support Employees Transitioning in the Workplace and updated language in existing policies that already allowed domestic partners to receive benefits to be clearer.
Receiving a score of 100 from the HRC underscores our commitment to creating an environment where all employees feel safe to be themselves. I am proud of the improvements we have made for our LGBTQ+ community,” said Andy Schneider, senior vice president of People, “Together with members of the Pride Crew Business Resource Group we are making a difference for all employees.”
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work is ongoing and includes everything from improving the guest experience to incorporating best practices in how we do business and much more.
Read more below on how we care for and support the LGBTQ+ community and employees.
Creating an inclusive travel experience
From the moment you book a ticket to when you reach 10,000 feet and climbing, we care about creating an inclusive travel experience.
To show our commitment, we have:
- Upgraded our reservations systems to provide guests with expanded gender options – ‘X’ (unspecified) or ‘U’ (undisclosed) identifiers are available across all Alaska platforms.
- Moved to use gender-neutral plane greetings for inflight announcements.
- Partnered with film festivals and independent film studios to create a Pride Month collection for our inflight entertainment.
Supporting our employees
We encourage our employees to bring their authentic selves to work, and our commitment is to ensure a welcoming, safe and respectful work environment for all.
Here are some of the ways we have and continue to create an inclusive environment for employees:
- Updated our grooming and uniform guidelines to provide employees with more individuality and gender expression at work, and became the first US carrier to develop a universal uniform piece. Our Business Resource Group (BRG) Pride Crew was instrumental in providing feedback and was a key partner in the development of the universal uniform piece.
- Introduced personal pronoun pins.
- Launched diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education modules/content on how to be an LGBTQ+ ally.
- Added domestic partners to health benefits and updated language in existing policies that already allowed domestic partners to receive benefits to be more explicit.
- Adjusted our benefits to meet the full WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) standards and requirements. If an employee has an eligible person on their benefits that is transgender and needs to utilize benefits, they can do so.
- Raised the inclusive Pride flag at our corporate headquarters building in SeaTac, WA, and unveiled a Pride-inspired plane on an Airbus aircraft in 2021 (which was respectfully retired in 2022 as part of our company’s plan to move to an all-Boeing fleet for mainline flying by the end of 2023).
Better together
To meet and honor our commitments, we must also work with partners who understand the space better than us.
For the 16th year in a row, we’ve partnered with the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) – Washington State’s LGBTQ and allied Chamber of Commerce and the largest of its kind in North America. GSBA represents over 1,300 small business, corporate, and nonprofit members who share the values of promoting equality and diversity in the workplace.
Through the GSBA, we’ve invested over $300,000 in business development and expanding economic opportunities for LGBTQ+ business owners and helped raise an additional $200,000 in direct support for the GSBA’s Scholarship and Education fund.
We are a national member of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and sponsor HRC fundraisers along the West Coast. Some of our other partners include Lambda Legal and we provide in-kind support to smaller grassroots organizations and fundraisers such as the LGBTQ Community Center Fund, LGBTQ Center of Orange County, National LGBTQ + Bar Association, Southeast Alaska LGBTQ Alliance, and many more.
In 2019, we joined a growing coalition of over 300 businesses across the U.S. to voice our public support for the federal Equality Act, and with our community partners, we sponsor and participate in Pride parades, Pride nights with sports partners and events across the West Coast every year.