"SEC says Amazon should allow shareholder vote on gender pay", 17 Mar 2016

Amazon.com Inc should allow shareholders to vote on a proposal on gender pay equality, the U.S. securities regulator decided this week in rejecting the retailer's request to omit the measure from its annual ballot.

Arjuna Capital, the activist arm of investment firm Baldwin Brothers Inc, said it submitted the proposal to Amazon and eight other technology companies, including eBay Inc. and Intel Corp…

Arjuna called for an October deadline for Amazon to report the difference between males' and females' pay and its plans to close the gap…

[T]he SEC said it did not agree with Amazon that the proposal was "so inherently vague or indefinite" that it would impede implementation.

Amazon…estimates that as of July women made up 39 percent of its global workforce and 24 percent of managers…

"We're committed to fairly and equitably compensating all our employees, and we review all employee compensation on at least an annual basis to ensure that it meets that bar," Amazon said in an emailed statement…