We're Invested in Diversity & Inclusion

Workforce diversity

We focus on attracting diverse talent by maintaining a strong employer brand and expanding where and how we meet prospective employees. We recruit from underrepresented communities, including women, people of color, people with disabilities and people with military backgrounds, among others.
 

• Endowed Scholarship Programs: Through the Charles Schwab Foundation, we’ve endowed a $3.5 million scholarship program to provide financial assistance and career opportunities to underrepresented students with a declared major in Financial Planning. Those eligible at several universities may apply for approximately $10,000 a year in scholarship funds if they are within two years of graduation. In addition to the two-year scholarship, recipients are invited to apply for and participate in an internship at Schwab, which could help inspire a future career in Financial Planning. This endowment is designed to have a long-term impact on creating career opportunities for underrepresented employees in the industry and enhance the diversity of Financial Planning majors.
  
  Participating schools include:

  • Arizona State University
  • Purdue University
  • Temple University
  • Texas Tech University
  • The University of Akron
  • University of Arizona
  • Virginia Tech

  
  This endowment complements other scholarship programs for underrepresented communities, funded through Charles Schwab Foundation, including:
   

  • The RIA Talent Advantage Scholarship Program through Schwab Advisor Services, which aims to raise awareness of the independent investment advisory profession and provides $10,000 scholarships to twelve students, reserving half for students from underrepresented groups.
     
• Professional Organizations: We partner with and sponsor over 25 organizations to help recruit diverse talent to Schwab. Our partnerships range from organizations and websites like The Muse, a go-to for the next gen workforce, to partnerships like the Toigo Foundation Conference to actively recruit Black and Latinx talent, and to supporting and sponsoring Financial Women of San Francisco. Some of our newest partners include:
   
  • Association of Latino Professionals for America, a nonprofit that provides professional development workshops and career resources to its 81,000+ members
  • Latino Leadership Institute, a professional development program advancing Latino leaders
  • Ellevate, a global professional women's network
  • Inclusively, an employment network that matches people with disabilities with employers who are committed to hiring inclusively
  • Mathison, an organization dedicated to bridging the gap between the most underrepresented job seekers and employers committed to diversity and inclusion
     
• Campus Recruiting: We partner with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-serving institutions, such as North Carolina A&T and the University of Arizona, to leverage our alumni from those universities to expand our presence at campus career fairs and career panels. We also reach out to underrepresented student groups at other colleges to provide job mentoring and career panels.
   

Inclusive workplace

Our business is designed to help people take control of their financial futures, and the same applies to our people. We invest in our employees and their futures by creating a culture of support, partnership, flexibility and balance. 
 

Benefits: The well-being of our people and their families comes first. In order to help employees and their families navigate life’s everyday challenges, we focus on providing benefits that matter most to them. We have expanded our parental leave benefits and added more family/personal support programs, including backup care, support for children who are experiencing developmental, learning or emotional hurdles, and legal assistance for employees’ parents. Learn more about Schwab’s full benefits package.

Talent Development: At Schwab, we want everyone to reach their fullest potential and look for opportunities to educate on diversity and inclusion (D&I) and develop our next generation of leaders to role model inclusive leadership. Topics we’ve addressed include inclusive leadership, the language of inclusion and increasing allyship. 

Mentorship Program: In addition to our ongoing talent development program, Schwab also offers multiple mentorship opportunities. One of those opportunities is the D&I Mentorship Program, which is complementary in many respects, yet unique in that it pairs Director-level employees who have self-identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Latinx, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races, with Managing Directors as dedicated mentors. Schwab’s senior leader mentors provide career guidance and developmental insights, and mentees focus on expanding leadership capabilities to prepare them for career growth while developing meaningful, supportive relationships with senior leaders. 

Employee Resource Groups: Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are employee-driven and provide support, leadership development opportunities, and connection to our diverse marketplace. Our ERGs are made up of employees who share characteristics or life experiences and are committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion at Schwab.

More than 13,000 employees belonged to one or more ERGs – representing approximately 42% of our workforce. Our ERGs include:

Mentoring through a specifically designed program helps support a more diverse and inclusive workplace.  Our company-wide ERG Mentorship program is built to meet the career growth and employee engagement needs of our employees at all levels.  The ERG Mentorship Committee, made up of ERG leaders across our locations, hosts a closing ceremony at the end of each three-month program to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of the mentors and mentees.
 

To learn more and find great career opportunities, visit Schwab Jobs.

Serving diverse needs

As the U.S. becomes more diverse, the financial services industry is increasingly demanding new capabilities to meet the needs of diverse clients. We believe diversity and inclusion is part of our success as a firm, our unique culture and our purpose of serving every client with passion and integrity.
 

• Client Service: We are meeting our clients’ needs for financial education content specific to their communities, such as women and LGBTQ+, through customized education sessions.
   
• Accessibility: Our user experience team works to ensure that as Schwab products and online experiences are developed, anyone can access them regardless of abilities.
   
• Industry Education: We also educate our network of Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) on D&I best practices, so that they can amplify progress across the industry.
   
• Research: We partnered with Ariel Investments, the first minority-owned investment management firm in the country, to co-sponsor the annual Ariel-Schwab Black Investor Survey. This body of research explores the similarities and differences between Black and white Americans when it comes to saving, investing, and other financial priorities. View the 2022 survey findings.

Supporting communities

At Schwab, we focus on financial literacy as a way to empower diverse communities.  To that end, we support many community organizations serving underrepresented communities with the long-term goals of broadening both our diverse talent and client pool. 
 

• Nonprofit Partnerships: We partner with many local nonprofits, such as the Boys & Girls Club, to improve financial literacy among underserved communities and help them toward a more secure financial future.  Many of our employees champion nonprofits aligned with our diversity and inclusion strategy for charitable giving and volunteer service as well, including Dress for Success, economically empowering women, and College Track, helping students from underserved communities graduate from college.   
   
• College2Careers: The College2Careers program partners Schwab employees with students from regional universities to provide students from underrepresented communities with valuable development tools including coaching on career skills, relationship building strategies, and guidance on positioning themselves to be competitive in the current job market and learn about career opportunities at Schwab.
   
• Moneywise America™: Building on our decades-long commitment to financial literacy, we launched Moneywise America with the aim to help close the financial education gap by making free financial education available to every school and community in the United States by 2025. Moneywise America is designed to help level the economic playing field for teens across the country through high-quality financial education, with a focus on reaching youth in under-resourced schools and communities. It has two core components: a standards-based financial literacy curriculum and a corps of Schwab employee volunteers trained to facilitate it. Read the press release.

Below is a snapshot of our EEO-1 data. While workforce demographics are only one measure of progress on diversity and inclusion among many others, we know sharing this information is important.  

Full Schwab EEO-1 Data (Download.pdf)

While there is more work to do toward our goal of creating an ever more inclusive workplace at Schwab, we are proud of our progress and the recognition we have received: