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Originally Posted by Keefelane66
Amazon did something similar like this and it cost them $61 million in wage reimbursement it’s offsetting the labor cost of employer the servers won’t be making $6.85 hourly!
“ At the start of the Amazon Flex program, the company paid drivers at least $18 per hour plus 100% of customer tips. But in late 2016, the FTC says Amazon made secret changes to the program without telling drivers or customers. Rather than passing 100% of tips on to drivers, Amazon pocketed about a third of each tip to offset the guaranteed minimum Amazon promised to drivers. As the complaint explains it, “[F]or a one-hour block offering $18-$25, if Amazon’s base rate in the particular location was $12, and the customer left a $6 tip for the driver, then Amazon paid the driver only $12 and used the full customer tip of $6 to reach its minimum payment of $18 to the driver.” In other words, despite representations to drivers and customers, Amazon took a sizable portion of the tips customers expressly earmarked for drivers and used the money to reduce its own labor costs.”
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It sounds like a different situation. I don't think Amazon drivers qualify as "tipped" employees per the IRS definition. Tipped employees are those who regularly receive a substantial portion of their income in the form of tips, like restaurant servers. But, as a general rule, when a customer gives a tip to an employee, the tip is the property of the employee, not the employer.