WHEREAS: Amazon remains under public scrutiny for alleged unfair pay and working conditions. Amazon has faced numerous lawsuits claiming disparities in promotion rates and corporate leveling system for women and minorities.1 In November, three employees sued Amazon alleging “chronic pay inequity issues.”2
Pay inequities persist across race and gender and pose substantial risks to companies and society. Black workers’ median annual earnings represent 77 percent of white wages. The median income for women working full time is 84 percent that of men. Intersecting race, Black women earn 76 percent and Latina women 63 percent.3 At the current rate, women will not reach pay equity until 2059, Black women in 2130, and Latina women in 2224. 4
Actively managing pay equity is associated with improved representation, and diversity is linked to superior stock performance and return on equity.5
Best practice pay equity reporting consists of two parts:
1. unadjusted median pay gaps, assessing equal opportunity to high paying roles,
2. statistically adjusted gaps, assessing whether minorities and non-minorities, men and women, are paid the same for similar roles.
Racial and gender median pay gaps are accepted as the valid way of measuring pay inequity by the United States Census Bureau, Department of Labor, and International Labor Organization. The United Kingdom and Ireland mandate disclosure of median gender pay gaps.
Despite ongoing controversy, Amazon continues to ignore reporting unadjusted median pay gaps which would provide crucial insights into how well the Company is managing access to job opportunities and employee pay. Median pay gap data, as opposed to diversity data alone, shows, quite literally, how Amazon assigns value to employees through the roles they inhabit and pay they receive. Median gap reporting provides a digestible and comparable data point to determine progress over time.
Amazon has an opportunity to improve the diversity of its employee base across the Company, not only in lower-level positions. Minorities represent 72 percent of Field and Customer Support Employees but only 36 percent of Executive employees. Women represent 47 percent of the Field and Customer Support Employees and only 25 percent of Executive employees.6
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: An annual report adequate for investors to assess performance could, with board discretion, integrate base, bonus and equity compensation to calculate:
• percentage median gender pay gap, globally and/or by country, where appropriate
• percentage median racial/minority/ethnicity pay gap, US and/or by country, where appropriate
1 https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/19/22444177/amazon-five-more-lawsuits-employees-allege-race-and-gender-discrimination-charlotte-newman 
2 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/20/amazon-sued-by-three-employees-who-allege-gender-discrimination.html 
3 https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-pinc/pinc-05.html - par_textimage_24 
4https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bc65db67d0c9102cca54b74/t/622f4567fae4ea772ae60492/1647265128087/Racial+Gender+Pay+Scorecard+2022+-+Arjuna+Capital.pdf 
5 Ibid.
6 https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/2022-sustainability-report.pdf