SEATTLE — Drivers for delivery apps like DoorDash and Instacart are now entitled to minimum pay in Seattle, based on a law that took effect Saturday.
Mayor Bruce Harrell is celebrating the law that the city council passed in 2022 with the aim of boosting wages for gig workers, while app companies are blasting the policy and citing it as a reason to raise fees on customers.
Designed to help workers delivering meals, groceries and packages through apps make the equivalent of Seattle’s minimum wage or more, the law requires app companies to pay at least 44 cents per minute plus 74 cents per mile during orders (or $5 per order, when an order would otherwise pay less). The city’s regular minimum wage of $19.97 per hour for employees at large companies hasn’t been directly applied to delivery-app drivers, whom companies have treated as independent contractors.
Many thousands of people work on apps in Seattle, the city has said.
Neither of the Seattle council members who originally championed the “Pay Up” law, Lisa Herbold and Andrew Lewis, are still in office. Herbold declined to seek reelection last year and Lewis was unseated by challenger Bob Kettle.
But Harrell hailed the law’s implementation in a statement Friday, describing gig workers as “critical to Seattle’s economy” and saying the policy would help give them “the stability and support needed to succeed in our city.”
Steven Marchese, director of the Seattle Office of Labor Standards, called the law “an important step forward” in the city’s pioneering effort to create a “gig economy” that empowers businesses, workers and consumers alike.
Major delivery-service companies are criticizing the new law, with several announcing app changes and casting blame on the city in recent days.
In a message to customers Friday, Instacart said the law would require the company to pay drivers more than $26 per hour during orders and said customers could expect to see “new fees” as a result. The company said its drivers in Seattle would no longer have access to various extra-pay opportunities and said it would make $0 the default tip for customers.
On Saturday, DoorDash announced similar changes, including new fees. It said the law could hurt drivers, businesses and customers.
“Merchants may experience significant declines in order volume as well as negative impacts to service,” the company’s announcement said.
Instacart and DoorDash customers outside Seattle will no longer be allowed to order from businesses in the city, the companies said. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Uber told KIRO-TV that Uber Eats customers in Seattle would be billed a new $5 local operating fee and a higher service fee.
Last month, the Target-owned delivery service Shipt, a smaller rival of Instacart, said it would pause service in Seattle due to the city’s new rules.
Drivers for ride-hail apps like Uber and Lyft already had minimum-pay rights in Seattle and elsewhere in the state, under separate legislation.
