Amazon will pay $61.7 million to Flex drivers to settle allegations of stolen tips, after an extensive investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission. The figure represents the total amount of allegedly withheld tips over the two-and-a-half years that Amazon Flex’s controversial base pay system was in place.
The practice of using tips to pay drivers base salaries generated significant outcry when it was revealed by The Los Angeles Times’s Johana Bhuiyan in February 2019. Amazon initially defended the practice, saying drivers still received 100 percent of the tips sent by customers, even in instances when those tips displaced base pay that would otherwise have been provided by Amazon.
According to the FTC complaint, Amazon used this…