TODAY, Seattle City Council voted by unanimously by a 9 - 0 vote to pass the nation’s first hazard pay law for gig workers. When signed by the mayor, CB 119979 will require large food and grocery delivery companies to pay workers an additional $2.50/delivery to reflect the added risk and expense they are taking on as essential workers during a global pandemic.
“If these multi-billion-dollar delivery apps want to do business in Seattle, they’re going to have to pay up,” said Rachel Lauter, Executive Director of Working Washington and Fair Work Center. ”The coronavirus pandemic has been a boom for Instacart, DoorDash and the rest of these companies, but the people who do the work are seeing low pay, high risk, and few safety protections. It’s about time essential delivery workers got hazard pay for their essential work during this crisis.”
Covered grocery delivery platforms operating in Seattle include Instacart, Shipt, TaskRabbit, and Amazon Fresh. Covered restaurant delivery platforms include DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, Caviar, and GrubHub.
The COVID crisis has been a boom for the food delivery business. Instacart last week received a new $225 million investment due to “an unprecedented surge in customer demand,” and is now valued at $14 billion. DoorDash revealed they are about to close a deal to secure $300 million from investors, increasing the company’s valuation to $15 billion as delivery demand rises due to the pandemic. Grubhub has merged with a European competitor in a $7.3 billion deal, creating one of the world’s largest delivery companies.