An internal review of employee compensation at Amazon has found that women and men in the same jobs at the company make essentially the same amount, the company announced Wednesday.
The Seattle-based retailer reviewed its 2015 compensation and found that women earned $0.999 to every dollar earned by men for the same jobs, the company announced Wednesday (Mar. 23). It also found that minorities earned $1.001 to every dollar that white employees earned for the same jobs. The survey, which was conducted by an external labor economist, covered Amazon workers at various levels of the company's organization in the United States.
"There will naturally be slight fluctuations from year to year," the company said in a statement, "but at Amazon, we are committed to keeping compensation fair and equitable."
The move was welcomed by Arjuna Capital, the activist arm of investment firm Baldwin Brothers, which had called on Amazon and eight other technology companies to report on the gap between male and female workers pay.
"This is what we were looking for. We're happy to see Amazon step up," said Natasha Lamb, Arjuna Capital's director of equity research and shareholder engagement.
She added, "What we know is that a 'trust me, women are paid fairly' approach is not enough, and a defensive approach to gender pay equity will not solve the problem. At the current rate of change, the gender pay gap is not expected to close for another 40 years. This is not only bad for society, it is bad for business. Fostering gender diverse teams leads to more innovative better-performing companies. Companies can and should commit to closing the gender pay gap, as Amazon has done today. But it won't happen without bold leadership."
Arjuna said Amazon was the only technology company that sought to block the shareholder resolution on gender pay.
Apple Inc. and Intel Corp. reported earlier this year that their gender pay gap either is already closed or will be short.
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