Vice News: Nobody knows if Amazon pays men more than women—but that might change

Some of Amazon's shareholders want the online retail giant to hold a simple non-binding vote on a 58-word resolution: It requests that the company announce its "policies and goals" to address the pay gap between men and women. But Amazon wants no such vote to take place. It sent a letter to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January, arguing that the resolution was too "vague" to even be considered by its shareholders. On Thursday the SEC rejected Amazon's argument. It called the gender pay gap a "significant social policy issue," and cleared the way for the motion to be heard at Amazon's next shareholder meeting in May.

"Companies need to wake up and start being pro-active about gender pay equity," Natasha Lamb, the director of equity research and shareholder engagement at Arjuna Capital, the Amazon shareholder that spearheaded the resolution, said in a phone interview. "It is a social justice issue, and it's a business issue — it's that sweet spot where investors can speak up and say 'this is no longer OK.'"

Read the full article at Vice News.