Amazon's British Columbia Pay Transparency Report

At Amazon, we believe that creating a culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive is integral to people doing their best work, and is essential to what we can achieve as a company. Our culture of inclusion is reinforced within our 16 Leadership Principles, which remind team members to seek diverse perspectives, learn and be curious, and earn trust.

We believe that our ability to innovate on behalf of our customers relies on the perspectives and knowledge of people from all backgrounds. We actively recruit and develop people from diverse backgrounds to build a supportive and inclusive workplace, and we take steps to ensure employees have a sense of belonging, value, and opportunity.

Amazon recognizes that pay transparency reporting is just one element of a wider strategy to address pay equity. While reporting on gender pay gap (GPG) alone cannot determine or resolve the complex set of causes for these differences, it is a crucial and welcome element. As we strive to be Earth's best employer, we take this initiative seriously.

GPG compares the average pay of all working men and women, regardless of their job title, level, working patterns, organization levels, qualifications, or experience. GPG is an expression of the difference in the overall average earnings between all men and women within an organization. Equal pay, on the other hand, ensures that people receive equal pay for equal work, regardless of their gender. Therefore, the presence of a GPG does not mean that there is a difference in pay for men and women in the same roles. At Amazon we regularly perform equal pay audits and are committed to equal pay.

The British Columbia Pay Transparency Act requires all companies with 1,000 or more employees to publish a pay transparency report by November 1, 2024. The Amazon entities in Canada that fall into this category are Amazon Canada Fulfilment Services and Amazon Development Centre Canada. The mean gender pay gap for these entities ranges between -19.6% and 6.3%.

Amazon’s British Columbia pay transparency reports are available here.

To improve gender representation and achieve our goals, we run a wide range of initiatives to inspire, recruit, and develop women and non-binary people inside and outside of Amazon.

At Amazon, we acknowledge that there is still work to be done within our business and we are dedicated to creating a more diverse workforce where employees from all backgrounds can build new skills and grow their careers.

Career Choice is an education benefit that empowers frontline employees to learn new skills for career success. Amazon pays up to 95% of tuition and fees (up to a yearly maximum) towards a certificate or diploma in qualified fields of study, leading to in-demand jobs in fields including Transportation, Technology and Business Services.

To date, more than 8,000 employees across Amazon’s Canadian fulfilment network have enrolled in Career Choice. New enhancements to the program in 2024 include Day 1 English and French language class eligibility for Blue Badge associates.

Amazon supports a variety of programs that aim to help inspire more people from underrepresented communities to consider computer science and technology careers.

Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) is a comprehensive program designed to inspire, educate, and prepare children and young adults from underrepresented and underserved communities to pursue computer science. Since launching in Canada in 2021, the program has partnered with leading Canadian charities dedicated to computer science education to fund preparatory lessons, tutorials, online resources and workshops designed to inspire students from all backgrounds, from Kindergarten through high school, to give computer science a try.

AWS supports a number of initiatives that encourage women and girls to pursue studies and careers in technology:

In an effort to bring more women into the tech workforce, AWS re/Start, a free-to-the-learner, cohort-based workforce development program that helps unemployed and underemployed individuals build cloud computing skills and launch a career in the cloud, teamed up with Momentum to launch a Tech Training for Women Program.

Through the AWS InCommunities program, AWS works to make a positive impact in the communities where its data centres are located and where its employees live, work and raise their families. In September 2024, we opened the first AWS Think Big Space in Canada, at Centre Lasallien in Montreal, Quebec, where visitors can explore a range of learning paths, including coding, programming, and robotics. The program includes activities that introduce young women to artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific experimentation, ensuring that the future talent are quickly exposed to technologies they could one day work with.

AWS is proud to present the annual Women and Girls of Science event at the Montreal Science Centre. The event connects young women with scientists, technologists, and engineers and gives them the opportunity to explore the career paths of women working in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to cultivate their interest in these fields.

AWS also supports several training and certification programs that are available in Canada. For example, AWS Skill Builder is a learning centre that provides taught and self-paced programs to build in-demand cloud skills. AWS Academy provides free, web-accessible, ready-to-deliver classroom cloud computing curriculum for educators and higher education member institutions to prepare students for industry-recognized AWS certifications and sought after careers in the cloud. In addition, the program offers enablement workshops for educators to ensure they have the most up-to-date training for their subject fields.

To cultivate a community of inclusion amongst our employees, we recognize that we must not only recruit a diverse pool of talent, but also ensure we are nurturing and developing the employees already at Amazon. We are committed to creating a diverse organization where employees thrive.

For example, Amazon helps employees with the transition back to work after a qualifying pregnancy-related or parental leave. In addition to government benefits, Amazon offers up to 14 weeks of paid pregnancy leave for birthing parents. This is a company “top-up” over and above government income replacement benefits. Amazon paid pregnancy leave runs at the same time with any applicable statutory leaves and government income replacement programs. Birthing parents and non-birth parents welcoming a baby or adopting a child are eligible for 6 weeks of Paid Parental leave, which will run at the same time as any applicable statutory parental or adoption leaves, and government income replacement programs. Paid Parental leave also includes our Leave Share program, allowing employees to give up to 6 weeks of paid parental leave to a spouse or partner who is not eligible for parental leave from their employer. Plus, our Ramp Back program offers parents 8 consecutive weeks of flexibility and partial work hours as they readjust to work schedules as new parents.

Amazon has 13 affinity groups, also known as employee resource groups. They play an important role in bringing Amazon employees together and create a sense of community globally while encouraging inclusivity and diversity. Women@Amazon and Amazon Women in Engineering (AWE) are examples of groups that are active in BC and have chapters dedicated to attracting, developing and retaining women in operations and technology roles. Other groups include People with Disabilities, Black Employee Network, Asians@Amazon, and Glamazon (our LGBTQIA+ network). Find out more about our Amazon affinity groups here.

We continue to invest in local Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) programs, and there are also dedicated diversity teams in place to support leaders and teams across Amazon in Canada to drive progress.

Find out more about diversity, equity and inclusion at Amazon.