Supporting Working Families and Underserved Communities
Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, and racism in any form is a direct threat to belonging. As protests, uprisings and strikes for racial justice continue around the world, we are affirming our support for employees who choose to use their voices on issues that matter to them.
At Airbnb, we believe in empowering our employees to be activists and allies. It’s important that we give our employees the opportunity, if they choose, to peacefully express themselves—and we support their right to do so. During this unique time, employees may take time off with manager approval to participate in peaceful protests without reducing their regular weekly pay.
Airbnb stands in support with the July 20 Strike for Black Lives, a movement organized by civil rights and labor organizations to demand economic justice for Black workers. We have shared with employees suggestions for ways those who would like to support this action can do so, including observing the 8:46 pledge by holding 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence.
This builds on Airbnb’s work to empower working families and underserved communities, and our longtime support of fair wages and organized labor, including:
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, partnering with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), Services Employees International Union Healthcare and the New York State Nurses Association to provide members across California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C.—as well as the Greater Toronto Area—with direct access to housing at no cost, via Frontline stays.
- Working with unions to create new union jobs and promote fair pay and conditions.
- Standing with working families—during both last year’s federal government shutdown and United Auto Workers’ strike—by offering federal worker hosts and UAW member hosts extra financial support through its Night On Us program.
- Implementing the Living Wage Pledge, which hosts can take to commit to paying those people who clean their listings a living wage, or the minimum income necessary for individuals to meet their basic needs.
As we collectively face the daunting economic challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb remains committed to fighting discrimination and increasing diversity within our community and our company. Some, though not all, of the ways we are working to accomplish this include:
- Project Lighthouse, a new partnership with Color of Change to measure and fight discrimination on our platform
- Partnering with the NAACP and LULAC to bring the benefits of hosting to more communities of color
- Implementing a mandatory Community Commitment to nondiscrimination
- Establishing an anti-discrimination product team
- Changing the way we display profile photos so guest profile photos are not displayed to hosts until after a booking is confirmed
- Committing that 20 percent of our Board of Directors and Executive Team, collectively, will be people of color by the end of 2021. Each team will also set specific recruitment and retention goals to be met by the end of 2025
We have been working hard to make progress in these areas and have yet to meet the high standards we have set for ourselves. We have much more to do and are committed to doing the work to make our company more diverse and inclusive.