Amazon announced on Wednesday that its female employees in the United States are earning 99.9 cents to every dollar earned by men doing the same jobs. Also, the e-commerce giant has announced that employees belonging to minorities are even doing better, earning 100.1 cents for every dollar earned by white employees in the same position.
The firm's announcement comes amid pressure from an activist shareholder to disclose its policies on gender pay equality. Together with Intel and Apple, Amazon has been in the sights of Arjuna Capital, the activist arm of investment firm Baldwin Brothers Inc., which is pushing for the tech giants to prepare a report on gender pay equality.
Responding to Arjuna Capital's proposal, Amazon stated that it hired an independent labor economist to conduct an extensive survey of the company's pay structure. According to the e-commerce giant, the study was completed recently, and the results were largely positive. In fact, from the conclusions of the survey, it does seem like gender pay inequality does not exist in Amazon at all.
Amazon released a statement about the results of the study. "At Amazon, we are committed to keeping compensation fair and equitable," the company said.
Natasha Lamb, director of equity research and shareholder engagement at Arjuna, shared Amazon's sentiment. She also said that Arjuna would withdraw its proposal in light of the e-commerce giant's initiative. "We are very pleased that Amazon is stepping up to investor concerns about gender pay equity, and we will withdraw our resolution." she said.
Lamb further stated that so far, Amazon is the only tech company that has responded directly to the shareholder's proposal. For their part, Intel and Apple have both alleged that the gender pay gap has already been abolished in their respective companies.
Though the activist shareholder has been placated by Amazon's announcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission has advised Arjuna not to withdraw its proposal. The SEC said it disagreed with Amazon's findings.
Nevertheless, the e-commerce giant's initiative serves as a rather good example for the other companies that are faced with the same proposal. After all, just as Amazon has exhibited, if the company has nothing to hide, releasing the data on the salary comparison among its employees should not be a problem at all.
For now, at least, Arjuna would have to wait for Intel and Apple's move.
