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Amazon will no longer use drivers' tips to cover their base pay
Amazon has pledged to be more transparent and to tell its its Flex delivery drivers how much they actually earn, according to an email sent to contractors as seen by the LA Times. Perhaps more importantly, the e-commerce giant will no longer dip into drivers' tips to cover their base pay. LA Times reported earlier this year that the company used drivers' supplemental earnings to fulfill the $18-to-$25-per-hour base pay they're guaranteed.
The delivery drivers weren't aware of the practice due to the lack of transparency. They weren't told how much of the money they get came from tips, so some of them had to experiment by ordering items themselves to figure out what was going on. Going forward, based on Amazon's email, the company will start sending them a fare breakdown for their shift, showing how much their base pay is and how much tips they got.
"While earnings vary by region and block, with the change to Amazon's minimum contribution, we expect nationwide average earnings for these blocks to increase to more than $27 per hour," the email reportedly read.
This is similar to DoorDash, who was recently called out for using driver's tips to fulfill the minimum wage that the company guaranteed.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday August 25 2019, @11:48PM (7 children)
I know its been going on for 30-40 years (and I was a busboy during that period, made more tip money on New Year's Eve that I would the rest of the month). I live in CA, which as far as I know doesn't allow this. There is a minimum wage. You pay your employees minimum wage, if not more. Any extra they earn is theirs. Hopefully the waitresses share the tips with the busboys, cook staff, and hostesses. After all, the waitstaff deals with the customers, but the busboys and cooks and hostesses have a lot to do with the dining experience.
The owner of the joint sitting in their hot tub sharing some $200/bottle wine with their mistress? Notsomuch.
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 26 2019, @12:05AM
I worked in a Holiday Inn breakfast restaurant one summer, nice spot by the pool on a really great beach. 1984, I think, and we'd get guys in there who'd order a $2 cup of coffee and leave a $3 tip...
Anyway, the hostess was a pregnant witch all summer, and she could "read" the clientele coming in the place, and if a particular waitress was on her $hit list, that waitress would get all the light-to-non-existent tippers. As a busboy I got 10% of everybody in the restaurant, and I think the hostess got 20% of everyone, but the waitresses had to really stay on her good side or they'd go from a $100 morning to a $20 morning real quick.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @12:07AM
It definitely feels like actionable fraud if they falsely indicated that they were taking money as a tip that would go straight to the driver. Any given person in unlikely to sue over a few dollars they paid for tips. But it's pretty much exactly the sort of thing that class action lawsuits were made for. Each customer gets a dollar back, but the lawyers can beat up Amazon in aggregate for millions of dollars for being shitty.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Monday August 26 2019, @12:12AM (4 children)
This has been going on for far longer than that. It also depends on region. In the US South, during slavery it was normal that much of the waitstaff were unpaid slaves. Giving them tips was seen as a way of demonstrating how generous the patron of the restaurant was.
For some perspective on that: https://qz.com/609293/how-american-tipping-grew-out-of-racism/ [qz.com]
However, several states have directly fought against the use of tips as wage replacement by passing laws forbidding it.
Another disturbing trend is tip pooling where managers get to siphon off portions of tips. Not quite the same as this story, but very similar in effect.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 26 2019, @02:26AM (3 children)
The Wikipedia article on tipping seems a bit more balanced. [wikipedia.org]
I like this bit:
No shit.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Booga1 on Monday August 26 2019, @02:53AM (2 children)
Indeed, which is why I clarified it with regards to region. Of course it varies by occupation as well. The link I included came from that very same Wikipedia article. Though, perhaps a little more context would be helpful regarding timelines:
https://www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/american-tipping-is-rooted-in-slavery-and-it-still-hurts-workers-today/ [fordfoundation.org]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 26 2019, @03:48AM
Thanks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @04:05AM
Tipping has a longer history [wikipedia.org] than the times of Medieval Europe.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 26 2019, @12:00AM (4 children)
Back in the day, minimum wage was $3.35 per hour, but $2.02 per hour for anybody "working for tips" with the proviso that tips, as reported on their income tax statement, must bring them up to at least $3.35 per hour. The brighter busboys who could do the math would always report tips that just barely got them to $3.35 to minimize their tax hit.
But, tipping Amazon drivers, is that really a thing? My wife tips all kinds of people, including hotel maids, but neither of us even for a moment thought about tipping these guys who show up half the time when we're not home, knock and dash even when we are home, and rarely take more care than not shot-putting the packages from the truck to the porch...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 26 2019, @12:16AM (3 children)
I think tipping is the norm with Amazon's same-day delivery of fresh groceries...? Whatever it is, I don't think it's the regular package delivery that's being discussed.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 26 2019, @12:24AM (2 children)
O.K. sure, Aldi just started delivering here and they "suggest" a 5% delivery tip on their receipt... pretty reasonable considering Aldi's prices are about 30% below most of the competition around here.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @01:48PM (1 child)
No it's not reasonable. The whole practice of tipping is insane and the sooner it ends the better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @02:45PM
Yes, heaven forfend you show someone real gratitude by offering them some of your extra cash to say you appreciated what they personally did for you over and above what their job requires them.
(And, contrariwise, when down on my luck many times I have most apologetically said 'I'm sorry that I don't have the money for a tip but thank you so much for your service!' and that usually gets a better acknowledgement that I was welcome to the service than slapping money into their hands).
an asshole.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Monday August 26 2019, @12:45AM (6 children)
It's a gratuity. A little token of appreciation.
It's not a purchase.
To me, it seems terribly wrong to even think of taxing tips... much less consider them a wage.
And, no, I am not wait staff. If I want to give somebody something, especially something of a token nature, it's between me and them.
I've already paid the tax on that money.
Might as well tax weddings, birthdays, and Christmases. Those are gifts too.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @02:27AM (1 child)
To make sure the tip goes where intended (the person providing the service), I usually tip in cash. As soon as the tip is added to a credit card receipt, or any other (e)payment, there's no way of knowing where it goes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @02:49AM
Yep. I do the same. Then the person I give the tip to can decide for themselves how much of it they want to share. If they don't want to share with the boss then I'm OK with that. Considering that this is being done with the government's blessing, then if they don't want to share with Uncle Sam I'm OK with that too. Screw everyone who is complicit in this abomination.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @02:58AM
"I've already paid tax on this money."
You don't understand how taxation works, do you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @03:44AM (2 children)
The law techically *DOES* require taxes paid on all those 'gifts' you mentioned.
It just happens that the majority of them are so priced that the paperwork to do so has never been feasible, and if nobody tells, the tax men don't know. Expect to see it go the way of automated speed ticketing in the near future. They will slowly start analyzing purchases and gifts and cracking down even on the lower priced ones.
As it is right now if you get a gift over a hundred dollars that isn't a consumable, make sure you check state and federal tax regulations to ensure you don't need to report it and pay taxes on it. The exact tax involved varies by jurisdiction when applicable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @08:49AM
Geez, some "loved one" could get me all snared up with the feds by gifting me something I didn't want that much anyway. Maybe if the Government brings it up, maybe it will put a damper on all this holiday spending, where someone buys a bunch of crap for me, then I feel I have to reciprocate in kind.
If the merchants start yelling "Grinch", we can show photos of the politicians who failed to roll back that law. It'd be so cool to hear a politician erupt "Vote for Me! I'll Fight for You!", Followed by howls of laughter, cat-calls, and Bronx Cheers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 26 2019, @02:48PM
Actually, the tax men have the *entire database of what everyone pays* and can easily run searches for outliers. I know many bartenders whose operative practice is report everything normal lest one shows up as a blip on the audit radar. A bartender who says "0 tips!" is begging for an audit *** unless every other bartender who's worked in that location report 0 and/or you can solidly prove there's a no-tip policy ***.
You don't have to pay what you earned. You had better pay within some degrees of standard deviation what everyone else does.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Monday August 26 2019, @09:50AM (1 child)
Any ceo of any company who steals tips in any way should go to prison, that's theft.
In every single way mr. bozos has used the asymetrical advantages of the internet like a sociopath, all for him, let everyone else rot.
Ban him from space, send him to jail, we need ceos who use the internet and computers for the benefit of our species, not chinzy tricks to benefit the biggest douchebags.
Who should also go to prison for stealing tips is the University of Missouri Alumni association, I was a banquet waiter there in 1999 and they confiscated the tips from the actual waiters and would probably drink the blood of the students if they could get away with it(which they probably could/can).
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 26 2019, @05:26PM
Exactly!
I'm not mad on the worker's behalf here. I'm mad because they stole MY money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @02:25PM (1 child)
The tip system is the server does well and the customer rewards.
The goal is a feedback system to cause things to be done well.
The feedback system requires the server to see which customer tips for which service.
If Amazon is preventing this visibility, they are taking money they shouldn't (the tip) and using it for another purpose (not sure what?) even if the server ends up with all of it.
What are they thinking? Is there some customer advantage to disconnecting the feedback?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @03:28PM
"If Amazon is preventing this visibility, they are taking money they shouldn't (the tip) and using it for another purpose (not sure what?) even if the server ends up with all of it."
My understanding is that the boss is pocketing the money.
"What are they thinking? Is there some customer advantage to disconnecting the feedback?"
Their thoughts are about the immediate payola. See above.