Seattle City Council set to pass first-in-nation labor standards for gig workers today
Gig workers defeat industry giants; poised to win landmark pay, flexibility, and transparency protections
Sub-minimum wages will soon be history: Seattle City Council is set to vote today at 2pm to pass our first-in-the-nation PayUp policy to ensure gig workers on apps like DoorDash, Instacart, Gopuff, Handy, and Amazon Flex are paid at least minimum wage after expenses with tips on top, flexibility protections, and meaningful transparency.
The worker-driven PayUp policy championed by Councilmember Lisa Herbold and set for a full Council vote today will create the most extensive labor standards for gig workers in the nation, including establishing for the first time that gig workers must be paid at least minimum wage after expenses for each job, and cannot be penalized in any way for exercising their right as independent contractors to choose which jobs to accept and when to be available for work. The Council meeting and vote will be broadcast on the Seattle Channel beginning with public comment at 2pm Pacific Time.
Gig workers are poised to win this breakthrough victory despite an extensive well-funded opposition campaign by DoorDash, Instacart, Uber, and other companies. DoorDash ran misleading pop-up ads in their app which suggested minimum wage for gig workers was somehow a “fee” assessed by city council, and recruited several of the organizations they fund to send letters expressing opposition to basic rights. Instacart emailed customers with vague threats about the impact of the ordinance — while declining to say anything to those customers about what the ordinance actually does. And Uber created and funded an entire fake organization called “Drive Forward” to oppose worker protections in Seattle. Meanwhile, a recent report found Seattle gig workers currently average pay of just $9.58/hour after expenses — with 92% of jobs paying less than minimum wage — and that this policy will provide a direct economic boost of more than $79 million.
Gig workers are available for interview before and after the vote — contact Sage Wilson at sage@workingwa.org to arrange. Photos of the campaign in this Dropbox are freely available for use.
Statements from workers leading the campaign:
Carmen Figueroa, Grubhub worker: “The PayUp policy has been written with the input of thousands of gig workers. This law takes the first few steps to finally recognize and respect gig workers’ humanity. Passing PayUp means I can earn a wage in which I can thrive and flourish in society. I’m one of thousands of people with hidden disabilities who depend on gig work to make a living. By passing PayUp, Seattle City Council has finally shown that we are not disposable and should not be exploited.”
Wei Lin, Gopuff worker: “When I started working on Gopuff, I had no idea what I’d be facing. I have to put in 70 or 80 hours a week just to get by. Each order pays only $4. Sometimes that doesn’t even cover our gas and mileage costs! If it was just me fighting, it would have been really difficult. But thousands of workers joined together to win this law, and with PayUp passed, we will finally have security to make sure we can survive in this city.”
Magnolia Klee, TaskRabbit worker: "“As a TaskRabbit worker, I know ‘marketplace’ companies like mine are no different from other gig companies. Their motivation is to make as much money as they can from every person who works for them. It’s in their interest to keep the cost of labor low, and that’s why they encourage us to set rates as low as possible. TaskRabbit workers need PayUp to even the playing field and make it impossible for these apps to continue underselling us time and time again.”
Key details of the PayUp policy up for council vote today:
Coverage: The policy will provide basic protections to gig workers on apps like DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats, Handy, and most other apps facilitating physical work in Seattle. (Workers on so-called "marketplace" apps like TaskRabbit & Rover were excluded in a controversial last-minute 3-2 committee vote last week; workers are calling on Councilmembers to close the loophole ahead of the vote today.)
Pay floor: The policy establishes a pay floor that ensures each job pays at least minimum wage after expenses for all time worked, with tips on top. The per-minute minimum will be set based on Seattle’s minimum wage, with a time factor to account for the extra time they work outside jobs, and a cost factor to account for the expenses they shoulder as contractors. The per-mile minimum will be set based on the gold standard IRS rate, with a mileage factor applied to account for additional miles required to do the work that are not attached to any specific job.
Flexibility: Gig companies will be barred from penalizing workers in any way based on which jobs they choose to accept and reject, or which hours they are available for work.
Transparency: Gig workers will have the right to up-front information about pay, tip, and other details of each job, as well as paystub information after each job is completed.
Timeline: The first PayUp ordinance now goes to Mayor Harrell for signature, and will take effect in 18 months. Additional ordinances in the PayUp package will follow in the months ahead, including forthcoming policies to address unwarranted deactivation, discrimination & harassment, bathroom access, and other basic protections.
The PayUp campaign was launched by tens of thousands of workers across the country in 2019, after Instacart workers successfully forced their app to stop stealing tips. Workers with the PayUp campaign led the successful fight for Seattle’s emergency gig worker hazard pay and sick days laws in 2020. Hundreds of Seattle gig workers have contributed to development of the policy over the past three years.
The full text of the ordinance is available on the City’s webpage. Our website includes a more friendly summary of the ordinance.
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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.