A new earning model DoorDash introduced yesterday (June 28) will pay gig works an hourly wage, but there’s a catch: The minutes adding up to a hour must be spent actively on the job. Waiting for orders, apparently, isn’t part of it.
The California-based company, which so far paid workers per order like much of the rest of its industry, added another pay option—Earn by Time—that assures delivery personnel of “a guaranteed hourly minimum rate for time spent on a delivery.” But just being online on the app and available to make deliveries won’t cut it. DoorDash defines “time spent on a delivery” as the period between accepting an offer and dropping it off.
Without paying for waiting time, the Earn by Time model effectively becomes a way to pay delivery drivers per order, while incentivising taking on as many jobs as possible—DoorDash would presumably receive complaints or spot those trying to unnecessarily delay a delivery to accrue time. Every order has estimated arrival time, and riders get a contract violation if they’re excessively late.
The company’s announcement on Earn by Time also lacked a critical detail: the actual amount of the minimum hourly wage on offer.
DoorDash says the new model gives drivers more flexibility and agency over their earnings—reminiscent of the arguments big delivery companies like Uber and Lyft made during the vote on the controversial Prop 22 law in 2020, the priciest ballot initiative in...
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