By Mupopa Tshibuabua, The Seattle Times — June 20, 2024
As a longtime delivery driver, I take exception to the June 10 op-ed by the Drive Forward executive director Michael Wolfe, arguing that what delivery workers really need is lower pay. The column described Drive Forward as “representing gig workers,” but they don’t represent workers like me at all. As The Times itself has published, Drive Forward was founded and is funded by Uber and DoorDash. Its board is controlled by Uber and DoorDash executives.
I have been an Uber delivery driver for several years to supplement my Social Security benefits after undergoing treatment for two different cancers. While Uber continued to charge high fees to customers and restaurants, our pay was getting lower. I regularly got orders paying under $3. As contractors, we drivers pay all our own expenses, like mileage and extra taxes, so I would have to somehow cover all those costs out of that $3. I once received an order from a restaurant in Bellevue for delivery to a customer in Seattle that paid only $5. The mileage alone would have cost me more than Uber was paying.
That all changed this year when Seattle’s new PayUp law took effect, requiring apps to pay at least minimum wage after expenses on each job. I compared my total earnings from January to May in 2023, and January to May of this year — before and after the PayUp ordinance. For those five months in 2023, I made $6,690 total. This year, with PayUp, I made $10,115 during the same period.
The PayUp law put much more money in my account for roughly the same effort.
Now, thanks to PayUp, I decide which offers I take, without being penalized by Uber. If I have to wait for an order at a restaurant or get stuck in traffic, I finally get paid for that time. Before, I would find myself getting irritated when any problem arose, and even get into arguments. My customer satisfaction rating has been consistently 97% or higher, and my cancellation rate is zero.
The app companies aren’t happy, though. As soon as PayUp took effect, the apps announced a new $5 fee and blamed it on the law. Not only did they add the fee, they advertised that fee to customers, with in-app pop-ups, emails and online ads. The result was reduced demand as part of a strategy to repeal the law. They want struggling restaurants to blame struggling drivers for their problems, and customers to blame the city. In my opinion, app companies are gouging restaurants, drivers, and customers all at the same time.
I have sympathy for restaurant owners because it’s a tough business. And app companies are hurting them too: Apps charge restaurants fees as high as 30% of the order price. If Seattle wants to help restaurants and make delivery affordable, we should lower that fee — not workers’ pay.
Despite companies’ attempts to reduce demand, most workers I have spoken with are doing better now. Yes, I’m getting slightly fewer delivery offers, but before PayUp, I rejected about 60% of them because they weren’t worth doing; now, I can accept almost 100%.
In the eyes of these companies, we’re just inventory. But we are people with lives and families. We won the right to get paid minimum wage after expenses. Now the companies are attacking the law because they don’t want workers elsewhere to believe that something like that is possible. Seattle shouldn’t fall for it. The Seattle City Council should keep the law in place.
Mupopa Tshibuabua is a retired software engineer and a graduate of Washington State University and Oregon State University. He has worked for Microsoft, Digital Equipment Corporation and Compaq Computer.