Delivering Precarity: How Amazon Flex Harms Workers and What to Do About It

Introduction and Overview

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the United States for more than a decade, is poised to overtake Walmart to become the country’s top retailer, full stop.[i] To meet the “fast, free shipping” promise at the heart of its strategy to achieve retail dominance, the corporation has built an army of contingent and subcontracted last-mile delivery workers.[ii] The most underpaid and precarious among them, making the speediest deliveries, are managed by Amazon’s Uber-like delivery platform called “Amazon Flex.”[iii]

This brief identifies key facets of the Amazon Flex labor model and discusses their negative impacts on job quality. It draws on Amazon’s own corporate filings, statements, and contracts, as well as government documents, press reports, research by academics, industry groups, and advocacy organizations, and conversations with Flex drivers organizing in New Jersey. It concludes by recommending organizing, policy, and legal interventions for improving the conditions of Flex drivers and a growing population of workers facing similar challenges on the job.

Key Points

• Amazon uses a system of interconnected labor practices—digital surveillance, algorithmic management, independent contractor misclassification, mandatory arbitration, and class action waivers—to maximize the labor value it can extract from Flex delivery drivers and to minimize the responsibility it bears for their job quality.[iv]
• That labor model subjects Flex drivers to intolerable and often illegal working conditions, including systematic wage theft, unlivable pay, inadequate benefits, unsafe work speeds, racial discrimination, job insecurity, unpredictable schedules, and a lack of recourse for workplace mistreatment.[v]
• Through Flex and its public policy work, Amazon is eroding labor standards in the broader last-mile delivery sector and beyond.[vi]

Key Recommendations

• Amazon labor model changes: Amazon should properly classify Flex drivers as employees under labor and employment laws, eliminate independent contractor agreements, arbitration clauses, and class action waivers in its Flex driver contracts, and end its use of opaque algorithmic management practices. But Amazon is unlikely to do any of that without worker and government action.
• Organizing support: Labor institutions, worker advocacy groups, and funders should support Flex driver organizing—because organized workers can raise job standards by making direct demands of Amazon and by advancing public policy change.
• Public policy change: To compel change to the Flex labor model, policymakers should establish worker data rights (including the right to access and correct data used in work management), regulate workplace digital surveillance and algorithmic management, ensure Flex drivers and other app-based workers have full access to gold-standard worker protections, and ban mandatory arbitration and class action waivers.
• Public enforcement and investigation: State Attorneys General and City Attorneys should take legal action against Amazon Flex for independent contractor misclassification. State workforce agencies should conduct unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation audits of Amazon’s Flex operations to quantify losses to state coffers resulting from Amazon’s misclassification of Flex drivers as independent contractors. The Federal Trade Commission should investigate Amazon’s independent contractor misclassification and use of mandatory arbitration in its Flex operation as anticompetitive issues. And members of Congress, following their probe of the Amazon Delivery Service Provider program, should launch an inquiry into the shadowy Amazon Flex operation.

Endnotes

[i] Sarah Nassauer, “Walmart’s Reign as America’s Biggest Retailer Is Under Threat,”  Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2024, available at https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/walmart-sales-amazon-growth-2bee429b.

[ii] Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, “The Amazonification of Logistics: E-Commerce, Labor, and Exploitation in the Last Mile,” in The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy, Pluto Press, 2020, available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv16zjhcj.11; “5 awesome benefits that make your Prime membership worth it,” Amazon corporate website, December 18, 2024, accessed May 23, 2025 at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/5-awesome-benefits-that-make-your-prime-membership-worth-it.

[iii] Sarah Halzack, “Amazon Flex: The retailer’s Uber-like effort to bring you packages,” The Washington Post, September 29, 2015, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/09/29/amazon-flex-the-retailers-uber-like-effort-to-bring-you-packages/.

[iv] See the “Key Facets of the Amazon Flex Labor Model” section of this brief for citations.

[v] See the “Flex Driver Job Quality Issues” section of this brief for citations.

[vi] Stacy Mitchell and Olivia LaVecchia, “Amazon’s Stranglehold: How the Company’s Tightening Grip Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 2016, available at https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ILSR_AmazonReport_final.pdf; Maya Pinto, “How the ‘Coalition for Workforce Innovation’ is Putting Workers’ Rights at Risk,” National Employment Law Project, July 19, 2022, available at https://www.nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Truth-About-CWI-Report.pdf; Amazon is a member of the National Retail Federation, which endorsed two bills in 2025 aimed at growing independent contractor work (See “Representative Kiley Introduces Two Bills to Support Independent Contractors,” Office of U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley, February 13, 2025, available at https://kiley.house.gov/posts/representative-kiley-introduces-two-bills-to-support-independent-contractors;  Worldwide Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington is on the National Retail Federation Board of Directors, see “Board of Directors,” National Retail Federation organizational website, accessed June 16, 2025 at https://nrf.com/about-us/board-directors; “Congress Must Reject Attempts to Roll Back Labor and Employment Rights,” National Employment Law Project, March 6, 2025, available at https://www.nelp.org/congress-must-reject-attempts-to-roll-back-labor-and-employment-rights/); Amazon is a member of TechNet (see “Members” at TechNet organizational website, accessed June 16, 2025 at https://www.technet.org/our-story/members/), which supports policies that facilitate business use of independent contractors (see “2025 Federal Policy Principles,” TechNet, February 2025, available at https://www.technet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025-TechNet-Federal-Policy-Principles.pdf).

[vii] “It’s time to revitalize the United States Postal Service,” Amazon corporate website, May 27, 2021, accessed on May 23, 2025 at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/its-time-to-revitalize-the-united-states-postal-service.

[viii] Deutsche Bank Markets Research, “Breaking Through the Noise on AMZN, USPS & FDX/UPS,” April 24, 2018, available at http://packagecoalition.org/resources/file/breaking-through-noise.pdf.

[ix] Yoonah Hahn, Dongho Kim, and Myoung-Kil Youn, “A Brief Analysis of Amazon and Distribution Strategy,” Journal of Distribution Science, 16-4 (2018) 17-20, available at https://koreascience.kr/article/JAKO201816357065337.pdf.

[x] Emma Cosgrove, “The untold story of how Amazon siphoned FedEx talent, setting Amazon Logistics up to soar while FedEx flounders,” Business Insider, March 29, 2022, available at https://www.businessinsider.com/how-fedex-talent-made-amazon-a-logistics-juggernaut-2021-11.

[xi] Anke Hassel and Felix Sieker, “The platform effect: How Amazon changed work in logistics in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom,” European Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 28 Issue 3, September 2022, available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09596801221082456; David Weil, “Understanding the Present and Future of Work in the Fissured Workplace Context,” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(5): 147-165, available at https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/rsfjss/5/5/147.full.pdf.

[xii] Jay Greene, “Amazon’s big holiday shopping advantage: An in-house shipping network swollen by pandemic-fueled growth,” The Washington Post, November 27, 2020, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/27/amazon-shipping-competitive-threat/; Halzack, supra note 3.

[xiii] “How to get your Amazon purchase delivered in just hours with Same-Day Delivery,” Amzon corporate website, access on May 23, 2025 at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/amazon-prime/amazon-same-day-delivery.

[xiv] “National Labor Relations Act,” U.S. National Labor Relations Board website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.nlrb.gov/guidance/key-reference-materials/national-labor-relations-act.

[xv] “Frequently asked questions about Amazon Flex,” Amazon corporate website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.com/faq.

[xvi] Leena Rao, “Amazon unveils new on-demand delivery service, Flex,” Forbes, September 29, 2015, available at https://fortune.com/2015/09/29/amazon-ondemand-flex/.

[xvii] Olivia Zaleski, “Drivers for Amazon Flex can wind up earning less than they realize,” The Seattle Times, November 10, 2018, available at https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/drivers-for-amazon-flex-can-wind-up-earning-less-than-they-realize/.

[xviii] “Areas where Amazon Flex operates in the U.S.”, Amazon corporate website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.com/recruiting-cities; “Work as Amazon Flex delivery driver: Amazon jobs near me in Brattleboro, VT,” Appjobs.com job posting, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.appjobs.com/brattleboro-vt/amazon-flex; “Work as Amazon Flex delivery driver: Amazon jobs near me in San Juan, PR,” Appjobs.com job posting, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.appjobs.com/san-juan-pr/amazon-flex.

[xix] Amazon’s Flex corporate website, Australia, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.com.au/; Amazon’s Flex corporate website, Canada, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.ca/; Amazon’s Flex corporate website, India, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.in/; Amazon’s Flex corporate website, Japan, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.co.jp/; Amazon’s Flex corporate website, Singapore, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.com.sg/; Amazon’s Flex corporate website, United Kingdom, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://flex.amazon.co.uk/.

[xx] See Statista for global Amazon Flex downloads and AppMagic for share of downloads in the U.S.: 909,769 * 68% = 618,643 Flex downloads in the U.S. in 2024. Sources are “Leading Amazon-published apps in July 2024, by downloads,” Statista, August 2024, available at https://www.statista.com/statistics/1489838/top-global-amazon-app-downloads-google-play/; Amazon Flex page, AppMagic, accessed on May 23, 2025, at  https://appmagic.rocks/iphone/amazon-flex/1454725763.

[xxi] Lauren Markham, “The Immigrants Fueling the Gig Economy,” The Atlantic, Jun 20, 2018, available at https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/the-immigrants-fueling-the-gig-economy/561107/; “The State of Gig Work in 2021,” Pew Research Center, December 8, 2021, available at https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/PI_2021.12.08_Gig-Work_FINAL.pdf.

[xxii] Matt Day, “Amazon is Testing Speedy Delivery Service Featuring Kia Souls,” Bloomberg, August 8, 2024, available at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-08/amazon-is-testing-speedy-delivery-service-featuring-kia-souls; Noam Scheiber and Santul Nerkar, “Amazon Delivery Drivers at Seven Hubs Walk Out ,” The New York Times, December 19, 2024, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/business/economy/amazon-teamsters-strike.html; Matt Day, June 20, 2025, Bloomberg, available at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-20/amazon-ends-speedy-delivery-by-kia-soul-in-favor-of-gig-workers.

[xxiii] Halzack, supra note 3.

[xxiv] “Everything you need to know about Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program,” Amazon corporate website, access on May 23, 2025, at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-dsp-program-update.

[xxv] Amazon, supra note 15.

[xxvi] Amazon Delivery Service Partner Driver,” Amazon Jobs corporate website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://hiring.amazon.com/job-opportunities/delivery-driver-jobs#/; Day, supra note 20.

[xxvii] “9 unique ways Amazon packages are delivered around the world, from e-bikes to mules,” Amazon corporate website, access on May 23, 2025, at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/unique-amazon-delivery-methods.

[xxviii] Amazon, supra note 15.

[xxix] Amazon, supra note 24.

[xxx] U.S. Amazon Flex Terms of Service agreement from February 18, 2025, on file with NELP.

[xxxi] John Kingston, “Second regional NLRB office rules that Amazon, delivery service partners employ drivers jointly,” FreightWaves, October 4, 2024, available at https://www.freightwaves.com/news/nlrb-regional-level-again-rules-that-amazon-delivery-service-partners-employ-drivers-jointly; Letter from Amazon to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, February 9, 2024, available at https://www.murphy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/amazon_response_to_sen_murphy_dsp_inquiry_feb_2023.pdf.

[xxxii] Amazon Flex Terms of Service, supra note 30.

[xxxiii] Todd Bishop, “Why it’s so tough for labor unions to organize Amazon Prime drivers,” GeekWire, September 5, 2022, available at https://www.geekwire.com/2022/why-its-so-difficult-for-labor-unions-to-organize-amazon-prime-delivery-drivers/.

[xxxiv] “Who is my boss??” AmazonFlexDrivers Reddit channel, May 17, 2024, available at https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFlexDrivers/comments/1cu8o5q/who_is_my_boss/?rdt=40566.

[xxxv] Amazon, supra note 24.

[xxxvi] “Misclassified Workers” issue page, National Employment Law Project organizational website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.nelp.org/explore-the-issues/contracted-workers/misclassified-workers/; Laura Padin, “Flex Drivers Are Winning the Right to Unemployment Insurance Benefits,” National Employment Law Project, November 18, 2024, available at https://www.nelp.org/flex-drivers-are-winning-the-right-to-unemployment-insurance-benefits/; Emma Freedman, “Drivers Say Amazon Attys Covertly Contacted Class Members,” Law360, April 7, 2025, available at https://www.law360.com/pulse/daily-litigation/articles/2321975/drivers-say-amazon-attys-covertly-contacted-class-members.

[xxxvii] “‘Joint Employment’ Keeps Corporations Accountable When They Outsource Work,” National Employment Law Project organizational website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.nelp.org/explore-the-issues/contracted-workers/joint-employer-accountability/; Mimi Whittaker and Dan Ocampo, “As a Delivery Worker Union Campaign Takes Off, Amazon Tries to Dodge Labor Law,” National Employment Law Project, November 22, 2024, available at https://www.nelp.org/as-a-delivery-worker-union-campaign-takes-off-amazon-tries-to-dodge-labor-law/.

[xxxviii] “Earn extra income with your business: Deliver service and smiles to your neighbors and customers by being an Amazon Hub Partner,” Amazon corporate website, accessed on May 23, 2025, at  https://logistics.amazon.com/hubdelivery/marketing/.

[xxxix] Karen Weise, “Amazon Turns to More Free Grocery Delivery to Lift Food Sales,” The New York Times, October 29, 2019, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/technology/amazon-prime-fresh-whole-foods-grocery-delivery.html.

[xl] Ryan Deffenbaugh, “Amazon’s Grocery Push Takes ‘Step Forward’ With New Subscription Option,” Investors.com, April 23, 2024, available at https://www.investors.com/news/technology/amazons-grocery-push-takes-step-forward-with-new-subscription-option/.

[xli] “Lucky Supermarkets partnering with Amazon on same day two-hour grocery delivery,” Supermarket News, May 20, 2024, available at https://www.supermarketnews.com/grocery-technology/lucky-supermarkets-partnering-with-amazon-on-same-day-two-hour-grocery-delivery; Amazon Counters Walmart’s Grocery Lead With Third-Party Delivery Play ,” Pymnts, September 6, 2025, available at https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2024/amazon-counters-walmarts-grocery-lead-with-third-party-delivery-play/; “Pick Up Amazon Flex Packages at Lucky’s Store” tag, TikTok, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.tiktok.com/discover/pick-up-amazon-flex-packages-at-lucky%E2%80%99s-store; “Weis Market Amazon Flex” tag, TikTok, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://www.tiktok.com/discover/weis-market-amazon-flex.

[xlii] In Flex’s first year, 2015, Amazon launched a Flex-powered restaurant delivery service called Amazon Restaurants that was quickly operational in 20 U.S. cities and London, but it never managed to break into the restaurant delivery market dominated by DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats, and it was discontinued in 2019. Amazon Today, a retail delivery service that would allow Amazon Marketplace sellers to engage Flex drivers for deliveries from their brick-and-mortar locations, emerged in 2022; Amazon announced that it will phase out Amazon Today by early 2025. See Julie Littman, “Amazon Restaurants to close US operations,” Restaurant Dive, June 11, 2019, available at https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/amazon-restaurants-to-close-us-operations/556607/; Max Garland, “Amazon to end same-day delivery service from retailers’ local stores,” Supply Chain Dive, October 23, 2024, available at https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/amazon-today-same-day-delivery-closing/730718/.

[xliii] Ashley Coker Prince, “Amazon cements its place as a supply chain leader amid uncertainty,” FreighWaves, December 18, 2020, available at https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-cements-its-place-as-a-supply-chain-leader-amid-uncertainty.

[xliv] Dana Mattioli and Esther Fung, “The Biggest Delivery Business in the U.S. Is No Longer UPS or FedEx,” The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2023, available at https://www.wsj.com/business/amazon-vans-outnumber-ups-fedex-750f3c04.

[xlv] Glenn Taylor, “Amazon Makes Rural Delivery Push, Applying More Pressure to USPS,” Sourcing Journal, July 30, 2024, available at https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/logistics/amazon-same-day-delivery-stations-last-mile-rural-expansion-usps-postal-service-warehouse-network-regionalization-520442/; Udit Madan, “Amazon’s investing $4B in rural America to expand our delivery network, offer even faster delivery, and create more than 100,000 new jobs,” Amazon corporate website, April 30, 2025, available at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-investment-delivery-network-small-town-rural-us.

[xlvi] “Finance Manager, Amazon Flex” job posting, jobs.technyc.org, accessed on May 23, 2025, at https://jobs.technyc.org/companies/amazon-3-60ad394d-c673-4474-9694-344b0cae748f/jobs/41749398-finance-manager-amazon-flex.

[xlvii] John Barbee, Jai Jayakumar, Sarah Touse, and Kumar Venkataraman, “Retail’s need for speed: Unlocking value in omnichannel delivery,” McKinsey, September 8, 2021, available at https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/retails-need-for-speed-unlocking-value-in-omnichannel-delivery; Doug Herrington, “Amazon delivered to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever in 2023—and is working to get even faster in 2024,” Amazon corporate website, January 30, 2024, available at https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/doug-herrington-amazon-prime-delivery-speed-2024-updates.

[xlviii] “Occupational projections, 2023-2033, and worker characteristics, 2023,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, available at https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/occupational-projections-and-characteristics.htm.

[xlix] Pinto, supra note 6; Kiley, supra note 6; NRF, supra note 6; TechNet, supra note 6; Katie J. Wells and Funda Ustek Spilda, “Uber for Nursing: How an AI-Powered Gig Model Is Threatening Health Care, Roosevelt Institute, December 17, 2024, available at https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/uber-for-nursing/.