Amazon Raises Minimum Pay for Everyone—Except These Workers
The gig economy is getting the Jeff Bezos treatment. Interviews with contract workers suggest the pay doesn’t live up to promises.
After finishing up his day job at a charter school, Sherwin Karunungan heads to a nondescript warehouse in San Francisco that serves as a shipment hub for Amazon.com Inc. In a windowless breakroom, Karunungan presses a single button on his phone, over and over, to request a gig through Amazon Flex. The program lets anyone sign up to shuttle packages for the world’s largest online store using their own cars and get paid by the delivery. But first, they need to score some actual work. On a recent Tuesday night, a crowd of other workers are hunched nearby with their phones, all furiously tapping and swiping to refresh a sparse page of job offers.
“Yes! Bayview,” Karunungan shouts. His assignment is about three miles away. “Less driving is good. So, more money for me,” he says. Because workers rely on their own vehicle, pay for their own gas and tolls, and sometimes need to return to the warehouse at the end of the day, a Flex job can feel a bit like playing the slots. And because they’re required to make the deliveries in a narrow window of time, Karunungan jumps up from his chair and hurries to retrieve his orders and load them into his car.