American Express Releases Its Inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report

American Express announced the release of its inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) report, which documents the company’s progress on its DE&I commitments and initiatives as part of its $1 Billion DE&I Action Plan launched in October 2020.

“At American Express, we have a longstanding commitment to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in our culture and in our interactions with our colleagues, customers, and communities, and we are proud of our history in this regard”

The report also details the diversity representation of its colleagues and the company’s history of fostering an inclusive and equitable culture through real stories from colleagues, customers, and community leaders.

“At American Express, we have a longstanding commitment to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in our culture and in our interactions with our colleagues, customers, and communities, and we are proud of our history in this regard,” said Stephen J. Squeri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express. “Our first diversity, equity, and inclusion report underscores this commitment by taking a comprehensive look at our DE&I efforts and providing transparency to our stakeholders on our progress, while also acknowledging that we still have more to do toward our goal of driving meaningful change both inside and outside the company.”

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Through mid-2021, American Express has spent over $450 million on a range of actions within the plan, including contracts with diverse suppliers, financial assistance and resources for minority-owned businesses, investments in pay equity, education, and training for colleagues, and philanthropic contributions.

In re-affirming its commitment to DE&I, last year American Express created the Office of Enterprise Inclusion, Diversity and Business Engagement, which reports directly to the CEO. The office guides and monitors the company’s inclusive practices and initiatives across six core areas: brand, culture, colleagues, customers, business, and communities. It is also responsible for measuring the company’s progress against the objectives outlined in the DE&I Action Plan.

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Additional highlights from the report include:

• In 2020, American Express achieved 100% pay equity for colleagues across genders globally and across races and ethnicities in the United States and enhanced transparency on equal pay with the disclosure of its “raw median base pay gap.”
• The company also enhanced transparency of its diversity representation data by disclosing its hiring, promotion, and retention efforts, reporting that 48% of new hires globally were women, and 50% of all U.S. new hires were racially or ethnically diverse.
• American Express has 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, and provided 100 Black women entrepreneurs with $25,000 grants and 100 days of business resources through its partnership with IFundWomen of Color.
• In 2020, American Express introduced more than 50 new suppliers across seven different diverse business certifications, and spent more than $374 million on services provided by diverse and minority-owned suppliers – a 7% increase from 2019.
• American Express furthered its philanthropic support of nonprofits around the world that are led by underrepresented groups and focus on addressing inequality, providing more than $16 million from 2020 through June 2021 to organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the National Urban League. It has also supported the Chinese American Planning Council and the Hispanic Federation.
• American Express has invested at least $25 million in economic development in 2020 to support its communities, including a $3 million commitment to the CDFI Community Investment Fund, which provides capital to finance community development projects.

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