SEATTLE — Since January, the impact of Seattle's PayUp Ordinance has been the topic of debate for food delivery drivers, customers, restaurant owners, and policy makers.
Companies said to accommodate the higher wage requirement, they had to add an extra fee on orders. The fee ranges from $5 to $25. That fee has slowed orders, resulting in some drivers receiving less pay and restaurants missing out on orders.
Because UberEats, DoorDash, and GrubHub are private companies, KING 5 cannot verify their claims of needing to add a fee to accommodate the PayUp Ordinance's higher wage requirement. They have not released any financial information related to the ordinance.
Public revenue data from 2023 shows all the companies reported making billions of dollars. DoorDash spent more than $130,000 in March lobbying to repeal the PayUp Ordinance.
CB 120775, an ordinance proposed this week, sponsored by Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, would change PayUp policies many considered key wins for drivers. The changes fall under four categories.
Compensation
- Drivers would go from making around $26 an hour + 74 cents per mile to $19.97 an hour + 35 cents per mile.
- Guaranteed minimum pay of at least $5 per offer would be eliminated. Pay would be calculated over an earnings period, not a per-offer basis.
- Incentives and bonuses offered by the companies would count toward minimum pay.
More changes to compensation, taken from Seattle City Council documents, are below.
In the PayUp Ordinance, an app-based worker can cancel an offer with cause for the following reasons: the offer was substantially inaccurate; the offer cannot be completed because the customer is not present or fails to communicate; an unforeseen obstacle or occurrence; due to sexual harassment or discrimination during performance of the offer.
Transparency
Under PayUp, companies are required to let drivers know information that can help them decide if they want to take an order with up-front disclosures like the pick-up and drop-off location, if the customer has already tipped, etc. The proposed legislation would remove those up-front disclosure requirements. Drivers would also have 45 seconds to decide to accept an offer versus the two minutes they currently have. Requirements to include how the company calculated the driver's pay would also be removed from worker receipts.
Flexibility
Current law protects app-based workers' flexibility and prohibits adverse actions by network companies, including limiting hours, reducing pay, and retaliation. CB 120775 would remove these protections, allowing companies to take any action up to termination, and limit worker access to the app for any reason, as long as they disclose it to the worker.
Enforcement Provisions
CB 120755 would remove the right for workers to sue the app companies if they feel their rights have been violated. A cure period for certain “non-willful” violations would be established. It would prevent The Office of Labor Standards from assessing penalties, fines, or other costs for those violations.
What's Next
On May 9, the Seattle City Council's Government, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee will discuss any proposed amendment to CB 120755. If the committee votes to recommend approval during that meeting, the full Council could take up the legislation on May 21. If passed, it could go into effect at the end of June.