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Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We aim to support a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce, marketplace, and society.

Promote Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Goals

  • Maintain 100% pay equity across genders globally and across races and ethnicities in the US
  • Double annual spend with diverse and minority-owned suppliers in the US from a 2019 baseline to $750 million by the end of 2024, including increasing spend with Black-owned to at least $100 million annually
  • Provide access to capital and financial education to at least 250,000 Black- and minority-owned small- and medium- sized businesses in the US from late 2020 through 2024
  • Develop more inclusive marketing initiatives, as well as design and build product experiences and programs that better meet the needs of underrepresented consumer and business customers
  • Provide $50 million in grants from late 2020 through 2024 to nonprofits led by people of color or members of underrepresented groups, including organizations focused on addressing inequality and promoting social justice
  • Increase the representation of American Express Leadership Academy participants in the US who are people of color or from underrepresented groups from 50% in 2019 to 75% by the end of 2024

$1 Billion Action Plan to Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Colleagues, Customers and Communities

In 2020, we announced our action plan to advance diversity, equity and inclusion priorities across the Company. The plan includes a series of internal and external initiatives, commitments and resources, supported by $1 billion in investments toward enhancing diverse representation and equal opportunities for our colleagues, customers and communities.

Action Plan

    Backing Our Customers & Communities

    2020-2021 Highlights

  • Pledged $40 million to the Accion Opportunity Fund to expand access to loans for historically underfunded small businesses, including those owned by women and underrepresented minorities
  • Pledged $10 million over the next four years to the Coalition to Back Black Businesses, our grantmaking and training initiative in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation to support Black-owned small businesses
  • Launched the Backing Historic Small Restaurants program with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, focusing on establishments owned by women and underrepresented minorities
  • Provided more than $16 million in grants to nonprofits committed to social justice and issues impacting people of color and underrepresented groups

Backing Our Colleagues

At American Express, we strive to treat everyone who works for us fairly and equally. We have a longstanding commitment to pay all colleagues equitably and maintain bias-free, transparent compensation practices, and we are proud of our leadership in this area.

Our compensation practices reward colleagues based on performance and other business-related criteria for all roles and levels, and we have policies and processes in place to compensate all colleagues fairly and free of biases.

In addition, we are also enhancing transparency by sharing the “raw median pay gap” for women globally as well as for diverse colleagues in the US. This metric compares differences in raw median base pay making no adjustments for factors such as role, level, tenure, performance, or geography. In 2020, the median pay for women globally at American Express was 107.6% of the median pay for men, and the median pay for US racially/ethnically diverse colleagues was 94.6% of that for white colleagues.1

Footnotes

1US racially/ethnically diverse colleagues based on US EEO-1 categories including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native American or Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and two or more races.

Pay Equity

In 2020 we achieved 100% pay equity for colleagues across genders globally and across races and ethnicities in the United States.

esg-report
For more information, please refer to our 2021 Inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report.
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