MCKINNEY, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a settlement worth more than $13 million from Walmart over compensation practices the state says shortchanged delivery drivers in the company's Spark Driver program.
The settlement, announced July 6, requires Walmart to repay affected Texas drivers and change how it communicates pay, tips, and incentive opportunities to participants in its grocery and goods delivery platform.
The state investigation found that Walmart failed to pass along customer tips in some cases, altered base pay after drivers had already accepted delivery offers, and misrepresented what drivers needed to do to qualify for bonus earnings.
Roughly half of the $13 million has already been paid directly to drivers who were affected, according to the attorney general's office. The settlement also requires Walmart to implement measures ensuring that drivers are paid fairly and in line with what the company markets to them.
Walmart's Spark Driver program uses independent contractors to deliver groceries and merchandise from local stores to customers' homes. Drivers use a mobile app to claim delivery offers, and the state found that the company's representations about how those offers were calculated did not always match what drivers actually received.
"Any big corporation that promises certain offers and pay in exchange for services must honor their promises," Paxton said in a statement announcing the settlement. "I am always proud to stand up for my constituents to make sure that they are fairly compensated for their hard work."
The Office of the Attorney General said it will keep reviewing Walmart's records and promotional materials to guard against any recurrence of the practices identified in the investigation. The agreement was documented as an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance, a formal settlement mechanism used by the attorney general's office.
McKinney is the Collin County seat with a population of about 220,000, roughly 30 miles north of Dallas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The settlement affects gig-economy workers across Texas who participate in Walmart's Spark delivery program.
