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Comment by naebother | Hacker News Reader

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?

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There really should be an additional fine to deter this type of practice, but at least they had to pay it back. I half expected a fine that was smaller than what they stole.

Another victim here is the tipper. Both the tipper and the driver were deprived of their money. Even if Amazon is returning it now, they got an interest free loan of $62M all this time. And the other two parties didn’t have this money for their own use, when time may have been a factor.

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.

That just means they have to get away with it two out of three times. Make it >= 50 and add in some jail time for whoever signed of on it.

This is grand larceny thousands of times over. An appropriate minimum penalty is fifteen years in prison for Bezos and anyone else in on the conspiracy.

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.

I've thought for a long time wage theft should be criminal like every other type of theft. And the law should require 1 day in prison for every $10,000 stolen. Steal $62M in tips should mean a bunch of people go to prison for $61.7M/ $10,000 = 6170 days or 17 years.

Start sending the exec's who had the final say in these decisions to jail. And then slap the company with a fine proportional to their networth. You'll see companies actually following the law a lot more then. Right now there is almost zero consequences. What they get some bad PR and a slap on the wrist? That'll definitely make them not do it again!

Honestly as a big company why wouldn't you just go cutting corners and breaking a bunch of laws. The gain you get is larger than the loss when you get into legal trouble so why would you follow the laws anyway.

In certain circles it's a reputational boost.

Consumer behaviour is not really affected by worker treatment reputation, Amazon warehouse working conditions are known to everyone.

If you are an asshole, the loss of reputation is a consequence, not a punishment.

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