Amazon.com:

"At Amazon, it is always Day 1. This means we never stop building or finding ways to innovate on behalf of our customers. The same is true when it comes to diversity. Using our Leadership Principles to help guide us we are innovating in diversity, inclusion, and equality like we do in all areas of our business: using data, thinking big, and building disruptive solutions. We seek diverse builders from all walks of life to join our teams, and we encourage our employees to bring their authentic, original, and best selves to work."

- Latasha Gillespie, Director, Amazon's Global Diversity & Inclusion Organization

Building Community

At Amazon, we pride ourselves on our peculiar culture. We honor and respect the differences inherent in each Amazonian, and we seek to include those perspectives as we develop new products and services for our customers around the world.

In addition, we strive to create a sense of community among employees of various backgrounds in order to foster engagement and innovation.

Play the video to learn more about affinity groups at Amazon

Affinity Groups

Our Affinity Groups bring employees together across businesses and geographies. With executive and company sponsorship, these groups play an important role in building internal networks for career development, advising Amazon business units, leading in service projects, participating in policy discussions, and reaching out to communities where Amazonians live and work. Since 2016, enrollment in Amazon's affinity groups has more than doubled in more than 90 chapters worldwide.

CORE

In January 2018, we hosted the Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) conference at our Seattle HQ to explore how race affects our daily lives. In less than a year, what started as just an idea between a few Amazonians became an event where nearly 2,000 attendees entered into conversations with activists and academics. We welcomed an inspiring group of speakers, including Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, Dr. Robin DiAngelo, author of What Does It Mean to Be White, Dr. Jerry Kang and Ian Haney López, professors at UCLA and UC Berkeley, and activists such as Carmen Perez, Adrienne Keene, and Jamie-Jin Lewis. The event was organized by Amazon's Affinity Groups and our Diversity Team, and brought together employees from across Amazon. After strong participation and feedback from attendees, we have made CORE an annual event where we will bring together experts and our colleagues to continue the conversation about how we can build an even more inclusive workplace.

CORE 2018 speakers Alicia Garza, Dr. Anton Treuer, Carmen Perez, Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Jaime Jin Lewis, Jerry Kang, and Dr. Michael Welp

AmazeCon

Since 2015, Amazon has presented AmazeCon, our largest internal conference at Amazon, to highlight the importance and business benefits of gender diversity. Over 4,700 Amazon employees participated in our 2017 conference, where they heard from leading scientists, artists, and business leaders. Megan Smith, the former Chief Technology Officer of the US Government, spoke about the history of gender representation in technology and government, and how that history informs us today. Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School and a co-founder of the African American Policy Forum, led the Intersectional Diversity track, discussing two concepts she pioneered: critical race theory and intersectionality. Jill Soloway, a two-time Emmy winning comedian, playwright, writer, and director spoke about their experiences and the importance of holding space, leadership, and allowing for all people to make amazing things happen. There were 20 main-stage speakers and deep-dive breakout sessions on topics such as career development, technology, intersectionality, and mentoring led by internal and external leaders in their fields.

AmazeCon 2017 speakers Megan Smith, Katherine Philips, Jay Van Bavel, Jill Soloway, and Kimberlé Crenshaw

Learn more about Amazon parental leave benefits like Leave Share and Ramp Back

Egalitarian Benefits

Amazon recognizes that no two employees are alike and our generous, egalitarian benefits reflect this. We offer medical, financial and an array of other benefits to all our employees – from our hourly associates to our most senior executives. Our innovative parental leave benefits include pre-partum leave, postpartum leave, and a Ramp Back Program, which allows for flexible time and a choice of part-time options when returning to work. Parental leave can be taken in one continuous period or split into two periods within 12 months of birth or adoption. In addition, we offer an innovative Leave Share program, which offers employees the opportunity to share their parental leave with a working spouse or partner whose employer does not provide paid parental leave.

Amazon also provides gender transition benefits, including gender reassignment. In addition to health benefits, Amazon has internal resources to help managers and team members support inclusion of transgender employees. Amazon's LGBTQ+ Affinity Group, glamazon, was instrumental in preparing these resources. More details on Amazon's benefits are available here.

Watch the video to learn more about how a former Navy fighter pilot found a new mission with Amazon.

Amazon's Military Talent Initiatives

In May 2016, Amazon pledged to hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses by 2021, and to train 10,000 more in cloud computing skills through AWS Educate. In November 2017, we announced that we employ more than 17,500 veterans and military spouses across the United States.

Amazon's Military Talent initiatives promote veteran hiring and engagement across multiple Amazon business units and geographies including the U.S., Canada, Japan, China, India, and the EU. In January 2017, Amazon joined with the Department of Labor to launch the Amazon Veterans Apprenticeship Program, where transitioning service members and veterans can work directly with Amazon to complete a technical training program over 16 weeks, and participate in a paid apprenticeship with Amazon for 12 months. More details on military jobs with Amazon are available here.

Learn more about the AWS We Power Tech program

Diverse Creators and Builders

Through our technology we have created a set of services to help enable our diverse sellers, creators and developers to pursue their dreams. Kindle Direct Publishing has enabled over a million authors of all backgrounds to publish their books, while Amazon Marketplace allows businesses of all sizes globally to sell their products to hundreds of millions of Amazon customers around the world. Recently, we launched the Amazon Saheli Store, which empowers women entrepreneurs in India by showcasing their products to a global audience. Read more about small business owners whose lives have been transformed with Amazon.

Through Amazon Web Services (AWS), we are working to build skills in cloud computing for technical leaders from all backgrounds, and highlight the stories of diverse developers to inspire the next generation. Partnering with AWS Training and Certification and AWS Educate, We Power Tech enables builders from all walks of life to innovate and shape the future of the tech industry. In November 2017, AWS held their first We Power Tech Diversity Series. This included sessions and networking events within AWS re:Invent, a technical learning conference reaching over 43,000 attendees.

Code.Org and Amazon Future Engineer are working together to train future programmers

Encouraging STEM Talent

In October 2017, Amazon committed $50M over five years to support STEM programs for diverse communities. Part of this commitment includes $10M over the next five years to support Code.org in developing the talented technology and business leaders of tomorrow.

Hear from the Amazon Future Engineer students about their summer program with Amazon.

Amazon Future Engineer

Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) is a program built to create learning and career opportunities in computer science for students from all backgrounds. The program focuses on two tracks: Learn and Work. Within the Learn track, students build an Alexa skill, and use AWS Educate to create their own video games. AFE's Work track invites college freshmen and sophomores to Amazon's campus for full-time internships, with the goal of inspiring them to pursue STEM degrees.

AWS Solutions Architects speaking to a classroom of Girls Who Code Students in 2017

Girls Who Code

Amazon sponsors Girls Who Code classrooms across the US each year. This 7-week intensive computer science course gives high school girls access to new skills, as well as insights from Amazon speakers, the opportunity to visit Amazon offices and facilities, and the support of their own Amazon mentor. In addition to our classroom commitment, we also provide access to AWS Educate for all Girls Who Code students and educators who would like to incorporate cloud computing into their curriculum. In 2016, AWS hosted two teams of Girls Who Code students at AWS re:Invent, where they were able to demonstrate their final projects to a large audience.

Seattle students participating in the "A to Z Experience" during the summer 2017

A to Z Experience, Summer Camp

Hundreds of nine to fourteen-year-old students from across the Seattle area participated in the "A to Z Experience," a summer camp hosted by Amazon in 2017. The program was designed to inspire youth from all backgrounds to pursue education and careers in STEM. Students toured Amazon's urban Seattle headquarters, a fulfillment center in Kent, WA, and brainstormed Amazon's next big idea during "Operation Think Big." The Amazon STEM Store also provided handpicked items for the attending students so that they could continue to innovate and create at home.

Chart: Global Gender Overall | Male 60%, Female 40%

Chart: Global Gender Managers | Male 74%, Female 26%

A review of the compensation awarded in 2017 at Amazon, including both base and stock, shows that women earned 101.5 cents for every dollar that men earned in the same jobs, and that minorities earned 100.5 cents for every dollar that white employees earned in the same jobs. We continue to prioritize pay equity.

Amazon People with Disabilities

AmazonPWD is committed to making Amazon a stronger company by building a community that supports employees and customers who have disabilities. AmazonPWD welcomes both people with disabilities and their allies. You don't have to have a disability to be part of AmazonPWD, just a passion for improving the customer experience.

Photo of Asians@ members at the Danny Woo community garden event

Asians@Amazon

Asians@Amazon provides a support structure and network for Pan-Asian communities. The group helps recruit, onboard, and connect Asian employees across geographies by sharing experiences and providing access to career development, networking, and community-building opportunities. They also host local community and recruiting events.

glamazon

Glamazon helps make Amazon a great place to work by educating and informing employees about LGBTQ+ issues and opportunities. The group mentors fellow employees (both LGBTQ+ and allies) and promotes diversity and visibility in recruiting and throughout Amazon. The group makes Amazon more visible within the LGBTQ+ community-at-large by sponsoring events and PRIDE parades around the globe.

Warriors@Amazon

Warriors@Amazon is comprised of current and former active military, their families, and the Amazon employees who support them. This group provides members with a professional network and a means to organize community outreach programs to assist veterans during their transition into civilian life, and more specifically into the Amazon workforce.

Women in Finance Initiative

The Women in Finance Initiative (WiFi) is building a global forum for women in finance and their advocates to network and partner. They focus on recruitment, retention and advancement through training, career development and community engagement. They have also worked to improve the recruiting and onboarding experience of new candidates and hires, and host networking events.

Amazon Women in Engineering

Amazon Women in Engineering (AWE) is dedicated to making Amazon a great place to work for technical women. With more than 30 chapter locations around the world, the group creates networking, training, leadership, and community building opportunities for both employees and interns. The chapters also engage in community outreach to increase the number of young women entering STEM fields.

Black Employee Network

Amazon's Black Employee Network's (BEN) mission is to recruit, retain, and empower Black employees. BEN connects members with mentors and provides career and personal development workshops. BEN also engages with the local and regional chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers, leads recruiting initiatives with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other organizations.

Latinos@Amazon

Latinos@Amazon is focused on building a strong community for Latinx employees, centered on hiring, retaining, and developing talent, participating in community outreach, and improving the Amazon experience for our Latinx customers. The group has an internal mentorship program, hosts social and cultural events, and participates in recruiting efforts at national conferences and universities.

Women@Amazon

Women@Amazon is committed to attracting, developing and retaining the most talented women in both tech and non-tech roles across all of Amazon's businesses. Women@ has chapters internationally, bringing women together to share professional stories and explore initiatives to hire and develop more women.

"Amazon has more than 500,000 employees around the world, and from our earliest days, we've been committed to equality in our workplace. We want our employees to be empowered to speak their minds, and to be heard. Every Amazonian should feel comfortable sharing their unique perspectives, and every Amazonian should seek out the perspectives of others. We want our employees and the communities where we operate to embrace that we are all human, we are all different, and we are all equal."

- Jeff Bezos, October 28, 2017 when accepting the Human Rights Campaign's National Equality Award.