As Seattle City Council considers policy to eliminate subminimum wages & provide basic protections for gig workers...
New report on Seattle's "App Gap" finds gig worker pay averages just $9.58/hour — and 92% of jobs pay less than minimum wage
A first-of-its-kind Seattle-specific analysis of gig worker pay just released today finds 92% of gig delivery jobs in Seattle pay less than minimum wage after accounting for basic expenses, with pay averaging just $9.58/hour after accounting for the costs of mileage, payroll taxes, and other basic expenses borne by independent contractors.
This new report — Seattle's App Gap: How gig companies exclude workers from basic protections, and drive pay down below minimum wage — analyzes several hundred unique worker pay records to show how gig delivery companies in Seattle have driven down pay to the extent that workers are almost always paid less than minimum wage after accounting for expenses. As the report shows, marketplace companies like TaskRabbit and Rover also facilitate work at rates below minimum wage, and engage in a variety of practices to drive down pay.
Examining more than 400 pay records, Seattle's App Gap finds that:
Average pay was $9.58/hour after accounting for basic expenses — little more than half of Seattle’s minimum wage.
92% of jobs paid less than minimum wage.
Without Seattle’s gig worker hazard pay law, more than 1 in 8 delivery jobs would pay below $0 — in other words, they'd required more in driving and other expenses than they'd pay.
Marketplace apps like TaskRabbit and Rover also offer services at rates below minimum wage, and engage in a variety of practices to drive down pay.
Raising gig worker pay to minimum wage after expenses would provide a direct economic boost of approximately $79 million — money that would be put right back into local business.
The full report is available at this link:
Seattle's App Gap: How gig companies exclude workers from basic protections, and drive pay down below minimum wage
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6efzdexpqa0d07/Seattle%27s%20App%20Gap%20-%20May%202022.pdf?dl=0
While the technology which enables the gig economy is relatively new, the exclusion of gig workers from basic protections like minimum wage is the latest in a long history of excluding particular groups of workers from labor standards, including farmworkers, domestic workers, tipped restaurant workers, and train car porters. Just like gig workers, all of these other groups of excluded workers are particularly likely to be people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ, disabled, or from other marginalized groups — which is why gig workers are speaking out about why raising pay is about equity as well as economics.
More information
Seattle's proposed PayUp policy would establish a per-job pay floor of minimum wage after expenses, protect flexibility, and provide meaningful transparency.
A broad coalition of worker and community organizations have come together to endorse the PayUp policy, including Seattle Restaurants United, OneAmerica, the Washignton Low-Income Housing Alliance, Somali Community Services, and numerous labor unions and community groups.
Consideration of amendments and a committee vote on the PayUp policy are expected on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 9:30 am.
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Contact: Sage Wilson, Working Washington: sage@workingwa.org
Working Washington is the voice for workers in our state. Working Washington fast food strikers sparked the fight that won Seattle’s first-in-the-nation $15 minimum wage. Working Washington baristas and fast food workers led the successful campaign for secure scheduling in Seattle, and our members across the state helped drive forward Initiative 1433 to raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick days. We successfully drove Amazon to sever ties with the right-wing lobby group ALEC and improve conditions in their sweatshop warehouses, and got Starbucks to address inequities in their corporate parental leave policy. And we've continued to make history by organizing for the landmark statewide paid family leave law in 2017, winning the groundbreaking Seattle Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in summer 2018, leading the fight to restore overtime protections to salaried workers in 2019, and passing the nation's first hazard pay and paid sick days laws for gig workers. For more information, visit workingWA.org.