An Amazon employee filed a lawsuit Monday accusing the tech giant of deliberately paying her and other Black employees less than their White counterparts, becoming the latest on a growing list of current and former Amazon workers to accuse the company of systemic racism.

Amazon said it was investigating the allegations in the lawsuit. “Amazon works hard to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture, and these allegations do not reflect those efforts or our values,” a spokesperson said. “We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and thoroughly investigate all claims and take appropriate action.”
In her complaint, Charlotte Newman, a 38-year-old Black woman who lives in Washington DC, said Amazon Web Services hired her four years ago to work as a public policy manager even though she had applied for and said she was qualified to work as a higher-level senior manager, a practice Newman suggests is routine.
“Many of Ms. Newman’s colleagues observed a consistent practice of paying Black employees less than similarly situated White employees, and a near-total lack of Black representation in and very few women in the upper echelons of the group’s leadership,” Newman’s attorneys wrote in the complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, DC. The complaint also accuses the company of “de-leveling” Black employees when they are hired — “dropping them a level below the job they applied and were qualified for or will be performing.”
In the lawsuit, Newman says she waited nearly three years to get promoted to the more-senior level she originally applied for “despite the fact that she was given and did the work of employees at the higher … level.” She also says she was sexually assaulted and harassed by a senior male employee before filing a written complaint about the alleged incident last June.