Seattle's gig worker law was supposed to boost pay. It did at first, until orders dropped

It’s been two years since Seattle’s gig worker minimum wage took effect. It was intended to boost labor standards for app-based drivers who deliver food for companies like DoorDash or Uber Eats.

How has it worked out so far? Kim Malcom spoke with KUOW’s food reporter Ruby de Luna for some answers to that question.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: Ruby, what are gig workers saying? Did the law raise their pay?

Ruby de Luna: Initially it did.

That was the experience for many workers like Michael Lowe. He’s retired, but to supplement his income, he makes food deliveries through DoorDash. He remembers the first month the ordinance went into effect.

He told me, “I delivered one order on a Friday night, that was two deliveries from Queen Anne to Wedgewood, and the traffic was so bad… if you get stuck in traffic, you get paid well.”

He said those orders took close to an hour to deliver. For that he was paid $58.

How does that compare to what he would’ve earned before the new law?

Lowe estimated he would’ve been paid about $17. The ordinance isn’t just about wages. It required companies to pay mileage and time spent waiting either for the food, or in this case, sitting in traffic. The law also outlined protections before a driver can be fired or in the industry lingo, deactivated.

The thing is, that pay raise lasted a few months.

A few months… and then what?

Things slowed down. Orders weren’t coming in; they still aren’t coming in like they used to. One worker told me she can be logged on for hours without receiving an order. Customers still want the convenience, but many balked at the fees that the apps tacked on after the new law. The companies say the fees are necessary.

That pattern is consistent with a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research —wages were higher in the first few months and then dropped. The study also found that months later, drivers have more unpaid idle time, and drive longer distances between orders.

And how about local businesses, how has the law affected them?

I checked back with Uttam Mukherjee, co-owner of Spice Waala, that serves Indian street food on Capitol Hill, Columbia City, and Ballard. Mukherjee has expressed concerns early on. Those concerns he says have become real — he’s getting fewer orders coming through those apps because of the added fees that customers are now paying.

“A meal might be $12 or $15 in our restaurant," Uttam Mukherjee told me. “By the time a customer gets it through these apps, it becomes $35, $40 so I wouldn’t buy our own food for that price. Why should we expect customers to do that?”

He estimates his business declined by 50%.

What are app companies saying?

DoorDash recently issued a report showing Seattle as the most expensive market for food deliveries, and not surprisingly shows the most decline in delivery orders. Cities like Denver and Portland saw up to 30% increases in monthly average sales, compared to 5% in Seattle.

Just to be clear, Denver and Portland don’t have gig worker laws like Seattle. Interestingly, appetite for app-based deliveries isn’t slowing down. In 2024, the industry generated nearly $30 billion in revenue. Demand rose during the pandemic and for many people, it’s about convenience.

Given how the law has played out so far, does Michael Lowe, the gig worker, think the law has helped him?

He said compared to how it was before, the law addressed many of the issues that workers had raised: work protections and pay.

"At the wage they had, you had to run all night long to make any money, ” Michael Lowe said. "A lot of times by the time I was done, after six, eight hours, I put gas in the car, get something to eat, that’s where all the DoorDash money went.”

A fair amount of unhappiness around this locally — is there any pressure being brought by anyone to have Seattle city council revisit this issue?

At the moment there’s no indication of any pending changes. And that adds to the frustration that businesses feel. They say support the intent of paying workers well, but they end shouldering the ripple effects.