Amazon.com under pressure from one of its activist shareholders to disclose policies on gender pay and its equality, said this week that its female employees earn as much as male counterparts, according to one survey it conducted recently.
The disclosure came as companies in the U.S. face criticism on the pay equality issue especially in the technology sector that is highly male dominated.
The online retail giant based in Seattle disclosed results of its own study after receiving pressure from activist shareholder Arjuna Capital, which is owned by the Baldwin Brothers and has pushed Amazon to prepare a report on its gender pay.
An Arjuna spokesperson said the company had been pleased that Amazon was increasing its work in response to concerns by investors over the equity of gender pay.
Amazon, which said it estimates that women represents 39% of its overall workforce around the world and 24% of its managers as of last July, said a compensation review including the base pay as well as stock compensation found women earned 99.9 cents for each dollar men earned doing the same jobs.
That survey, which was carried out by a labor economist with no ties to Amazon, covered workers at Amazon at a number of levels of organizations in the U.S.
The study, which recently was just completed, also determined that minorities had earned 100.1 cents for every U.S. dollar that white employees earned in the U.S.
The Securities and Exchange Commission a securities regulator in the U.S. said last week that Amazon should give shareholders the chance to vote on gender pay and personal pay.
