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Where Does a Tip To an Amazon Driver Go? In Some Cases, Toward the Driver's Base Pay (latimes.com)
Amazon at times dips into the tips earned by contracted delivery drivers to cover their promised pay, a Los Angeles Times review of emails and receipts reveals. From the report: Amazon guarantees third-party drivers for its Flex program a minimum of $18 to $25 per hour, but the entirety of that payment doesn't always come from the company. If Amazon's contribution doesn't reach the guaranteed wage, the e-commerce giant makes up the difference with tips from customers, according to documentation shared by five drivers. In emails to drivers, Amazon acknowledges it can use "any supplemental earnings" to meet the promised minimum should the company's own contribution fall short. "We add any supplemental earnings required to meet our commitment that delivery partners earn $18-$25 per hour," the company wrote in multiple emails reviewed by The Times. Only drivers who deliver for Amazon's grocery service or its Prime Now offering -- which brings household goods to customers in two hours or less -- can receive tips through the company's app. Amazon insists that drivers receive the entirety of their tips but declined to answer questions from The Times about whether it uses those tips to help cover the drivers' base pay.
This is why the tipping culture needs to end. Employers need to pay employees a fair wage without tips. Consumers shouldn't have to worry about mandatory tips for services they already paid for. It seems just about everything that involves a human these days involves a tip; it's becoming ridiculous. Everyone but the employer is being shafted.
Nobody tips me to show up at the office every day to do my job so why should I tip someone to deliver my groceries which is their job? The one exception being is if they went above and beyond in which case I would gladly tip them but do so with cash.
Cash is still a thing. If you want to tip, don't do it using the app. Amazon can't figure in tips it doesn't know about, right?
When I pay by card in a US restaurant, I try to avoid tipping using the "add X%" button and leave cash on the table instead because I don't trust the owners not to rip off the waitress in some fashion or another.
BTW, in Sweden, there's no such thing as a "tipped" sub-minimum wage for restaurant workers, and no such thing as tips, either.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.