Working Mother has named the 2013 “Best Companies for Multicultural Women,” which recognizes the 25 U.S. corporations that create and use best practices in hiring, retaining, and promoting women of color.

This year, multicultural women at the Best Companies received 15 percent of all promotions to manager and above as compared to 13 percent in 2011. However, multicultural female representation among the top tenth of the earners at the Best Companies fell to 7 percent from 13 percent last year.

Twenty-three percent of executives who report directly to the CEO at the Best Companies are women, while 5 percent are multicultural women. That’s an increase over last year’s Best Companies, where women represented 19 percent of all executives reporting directly to the CEO, 4 percent of whom were multicultural women.

Female multicultural representation has held steady for the past two years at the manager, senior manager and corporate executive levels at the Best Companies, shrinking significantly as they move up the corporate ladder. White men are the only employee group to gain representation as they advance in their careers.

Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media, says, “The Best Companies for Multicultural Women shows grooming female leaders has become a crucial mandate, and great companies are simultaneously weaving diversity into their culture. However, many challenges lie ahead for all U.S. companies to build a pipeline of diverse talent.”