Every second, 231 packages are delivered around the world by Amazon. In the United States alone, that translates to 1.6 million packages per day and more than 9 billion items a year.
For consumers, the experience is seamless: click a button, and goods appear at the doorstep in a day or less. But a new study from the Shift Project, based at the Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, reveals that delivery speed may come at the expense of the drivers who make it possible. At an average $19 per hour, Amazon drivers make significantly less than UPS ($35 per hour) and FedEx ($25 per hour) drivers, for example.
Daniel Schneider, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy, HKS; Professor of Sociology; David Weil; Julie Su; and Kevin Bruey authored the research report, “Amazon Drives Low Wages: The Unraveling of Workplace Protections for Delivery Drivers,” which compares working conditions at Amazon with those at UPS and FedEx. Its findings suggest that Amazon’s innovation has come with a steep cost for workers and the delivery industry at large.
Two delivery models
For nearly a century, driving a delivery truck with, for example, UPS, was a pathway to the middle class. Unionized drivers could count on reliable wages, benefits, and long-term careers. In contrast, Amazon has more recently built its vast delivery network around outsourcing and gig-style arrangements.
Instead of directly employing its drivers, Amazon relies on two systems: delivery service partners—franchise-like subcontractors that operate fleets of Amazon-branded vans—and Amazon Flex—a platform where independent contractors use their own cars to deliver packages, much like Uber or DoorDash.
This “fissured” model, as researchers describe it, lets Amazon control standards and branding while avoiding direct responsibility for wages, benefits, or unionization. The authors note: “Amazon has embraced a very different model that effectively removes it as the direct employer of any of its delivery drivers, creating downward pressure on the wages and working conditions of delivery drivers throughout the industry.”
Using survey data from nearly 10,000 workers at Amazon, UPS, and FedEx, researchers found stark differences in job quality:
- Wages: Amazon delivery drivers average $19/hour, compared to $35/hour at UPS and $25/hour at FedEx
- Wage growth: At UPS, pay rises with tenure—from $21/hour to nearly $40/hour after a decade. At Amazon, pay is flat: drivers start at $17–19/hour and stay there, regardless of experience.
- Job stability: Nearly half of Amazon drivers had been on the job less than a year. By contrast, more than half of UPS drivers had worked there for a decade or longer.
- Benefits: Almost all UPS drivers have access to health insurance, paid vacation, and retirement plans. At Amazon, fewer than half of drivers have such coverage.
- Hardship: One in four Amazon drivers reported going hungry in the last month because they couldn’t afford food, and one in three said they couldn’t cover utility bills.
In addition to lower pay and weaker protections, Amazon drivers face a uniquely intense level of technological surveillance: 60% of Amazon drivers reported being tracked on speed by a device, compared to about 30% of FedEx workers. Nearly three-quarters said their employer monitors the quality of their work using technology, far higher than UPS or FedEx.
Workers described a system where “every second of downtime” is logged and evaluated. This kind of surveillance, researchers argue, doesn’t just pressure workers—it reshapes the very nature of the job.
“The continuing expansion of the Amazon business model could portend very different and troubling ripples for working people more generally.”
Widespread implications for workers
Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce and delivery means its approach is setting the standard for the industry. By 2024, Amazon delivered nearly 30% of U.S. packages, surpassing UPS and rivaled only by the Postal Service.
This matters for three big reasons:
- Ripple effects across industries: Just as Walmart reshaped retail in the 1980s, Amazon’s labor practices influence competitors. Lower wages and weaker protections at Amazon put downward pressure on standards elsewhere.
- Erosion of middle-class jobs: Unionized driving jobs once provided reliable careers. If Amazon’s fissured model becomes the norm, those ladders of mobility may disappear.
- Worker well-being: Hunger, housing insecurity, and relentless surveillance aren’t abstract problems—they affect families, communities, and public health.
The report concludes, “The continuing expansion of the Amazon business model could portend very different and troubling ripples for working people more generally.”
Consumers have come to expect rapid delivery, often for free, but that convenience carries hidden costs. The contrast between UPS and Amazon illustrates two competing visions of work: one rooted in stable employment and collective bargaining, the other in outsourcing and algorithmic control. The research underscores crucial questions for policymakers, labor advocates, and consumers about the tensions between a future of work that prioritizes speed at any cost and one that builds in protections and sustainability for workers.