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Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#21

Post by aledalgrande »

bagacrap wrote: post #13
imgabe wrote: post #9

Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.

In the service industry there's a big difference between doing a job and doing a job /well/. Doing a job well is incentivized by tips.

Then how comes you can get exceptional service in countries where there's no tips?

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#22

Post by adammenges »

bagacrap wrote: post #13
imgabe wrote: post #9

Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.

In the service industry there's a big difference between doing a job and doing a job /well/. Doing a job well is incentivized by tips.

That's true in more or less every job, it can be done well or done poorly. Incentive should be keeping the job at all. Tips are an infuriating hidden cost.

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#23

Post by adammenges »

imgabe wrote: post #9

Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.

Agreed. There're several other good articles about this. Here's one: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/08/15/why-americas-t...

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#24

Post by nerpderp82 »

peteretep wrote: post #2

> (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post) Maybe it's only a veneer of independence, but I like that WashPo is reporting on this.

I came for the, "ha ha hah ha!".

I know, did Bezos just pay for "street cred" for his WaPo?

If the same writer follows up with, "Space Wenis, retirement project for Bezos to see new heights" then I know that the WaPo is an independent journalistic organization.

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#25

Post by monster_group »

bagacrap wrote: post #16
naebother wrote: post #7

Always tip cash. > Amazon agreed to pay the regulator $61.7 million, the amount the FTC claims the company shorted its drivers in tips over a 2½ year period. Can the common man also get this kind of generous treatment from the law - just pay back what you stole and move on?

the legal fees and reputational damage make it not exactly free

Still a lot better than going to prison for multiple years which is what common man would face for stealing.

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#26

Post by refurb »

imgabe wrote: post #9

Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.

I have a few friends in the service industry who prefer the tips model since the tips are often 200-300% of their base pay. If it switched to fixed hourly pay, they'd be taking a pay cut since there is no way their hourly pay would be $30/hr.

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#27

Post by MattGaiser »

peteretep wrote: post #3

> The FTC alleges Amazon changed the way it paid drivers in late 2016, lowering the hourly rate and then used customer tips to make up the difference. Amazon continued to tell drivers they were receiving all of their tips, even after receiving hundreds of complaints from drivers, the agency said. How is this not simply theft? Why does this attract civil charges and not criminal ones?

Because they were receiving all their tips. They were not receiving the same pay as before.

I suspect they played with words to make people think one thing instead of another.

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#28

Post by ObjectiveZen »

bagacrap wrote: post #13
imgabe wrote: post #9

Just do away with tips. It's a terrible and stupid system. If you want to do it as a customer, go ahead, but it should never be considered as part of the employee's compensation. If people aren't willing to do the job for the hourly wage alone with no tips, raise the wage until they are.

In the service industry there's a big difference between doing a job and doing a job /well/. Doing a job well is incentivized by tips.

This is such an absurd argument.

One of my first jobs, I worked in a private members-only clubhouse where tipping was prohibited. The service was held to a higher standard than most restaurants open to the public. If you didn’t do your job well, you’d no longer have a job.

We were paid quite a bit higher than minimum wage, so we were fine with it. Most people are fine doing their job well for a decent hourly wage.

If you’re the kind of employee that acts out with poor service towards a customer because you’re upset with the wage your employer pays you, then you need to find a job that isn’t customer facing.

Re: Amazon shortchanged drivers $61.7M in tips

#29

Post by nerpderp82 »

lostlogin wrote: post #10
naebother wrote: post #7

Always tip cash. > Amazon agreed to pay the regulator $61.7 million, the amount the FTC claims the company shorted its drivers in tips over a 2½ year period. Can the common man also get this kind of generous treatment from the law - just pay back what you stole and move on?

The article mentions that the payment goes to the drivers, which is better than it just going to the FTC. It’s unlikely that the drivers are a rich bunch, the stolen money and interest with a penalty percentage would seem a minimum reasonable penalty.

I'll gotten gains need to be fined at some integer multiple >= 2.
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