Seattle says gig workers are earning more since 2022 minimum pay law

Seattle's Office of Labor Standards released a study Wednesday on the impact of the city's 2022 minimum pay law for gig workers.

The law, which went into effect in 2024, tries to compensate drivers for hidden costs like wear and tear on a worker's car.

The study found that, after the law passed, gig worker pay rose to $16 an hour. That includes time spent on the app looking for jobs. It found more workers have signed up, and customers are ordering more, too.

In a recent blog post, DoorDash cited a different report to argue the opposite: The law caused nearly 1 million fewer orders. That would mean higher pay per job does not mean higher monthly earnings.

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

But Seattle officials says the city’s report draws on a much larger, industry-wide dataset that DoorDash doesn’t have.

That's because the law required delivery apps to share detailed, proprietary information about worker activity and pay.