Be honest with workers about how much they’ll earn, and other lessons from the FTC’s settlement with Walmart

Protecting workers and ensuring competitive labor markets is a top priority for the FTC and the agency’s Labor Task Force. By maximizing the agency’s jurisdiction and interdisciplinary expertise, the FTC is confronting challenges facing American workers. Take, for example, the announced settlement of a case brought by the FTC and eleven states against Walmart, Inc., which resolves allegations that the company misrepresented how much drivers for its delivery service, Spark Driver, would earn through tips, base pay, and incentives. The lawsuit alleges that Walmart’s practices caused drivers to lose millions of dollars in expected earnings.

Through Walmart’s Spark Driver app, gig workers can sign up to deliver goods to customers. Those workers decide whether to accept delivery jobs based on Walmart’s statements about the base pay and tips a driver can expect to get if they complete the work. But the complaint alleges that since at least 2021, Walmart misled drivers about how much they would earn on specific deliveries by, for example:

• Offering tips to drivers that it knew, or should have known, drivers would not receive;
• Reducing drivers’ tips when a customer’s delivery was split across multiple drivers;
• Failing to inform drivers (at all or in advance) that it would reduce their base pay and tips when it removes orders from “batched orders,” where drivers deliver goods to multiple customers during one trip;
• Failing to disclose all conditions that must be met to earn incentive pay for completing certain tasks, like recruiting new drivers. And even when drivers met the incentive conditions, Walmart sometimes failed to provide the promised pay; and
• Failing to provide collected tips to drivers (despite promising they’d get 100% of earned tips).

The lawsuit alleges that Walmart’s practices violated the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the laws of the agency’s state partners. To resolve the allegations, Walmart has agreed to a $100 million judgment. Walmart is also prohibited from further misrepresenting earnings in delivery offers it makes to Spark drivers.

Gig workers deserve non-misleading and truthful information about what they’ll earn, and customers deserve transparency about where their money goes. If your company offers gig work, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Be transparent and accurate. Clearly disclose pay terms, tips, and any incentive conditions up front — so there are no surprise changes after a gig worker accepts or completes the task;
• Implement robust compliance systems. Regularly audit gig workers’ earnings and incentive payments. Document and remediate any discrepancies, including those caused by technology, program failures, or issues with the platform; and
• Know what the law requires. Review Section 5 of the FTC Act and the FTC Chairman’s February 2025 Directive Regarding Labor Markets Task Force.