I started delivering food in Seattle a few years ago because it gave me flexibility. I could work around school, family responsibilities, and other jobs. I could choose when to log on, where to work, and how long to stay out. Like many delivery drivers, it’s not my full-time job — I was looking for control over my time and a reliable way to earn a little extra income.
Two years after Seattle passed its delivery pay law, that flexibility — and that reliability — is disappearing.
When the city passed the App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance, the idea sounded good: guarantee delivery drivers a higher minimum pay rate. I support fair pay. Drivers deserve protections, and no one should be underpaid for their work. But what the law didn’t fully account for is how delivery actually works — and how higher costs would change customer behavior.
Since the law took effect, the biggest change I’ve noticed isn’t higher pay. It’s fewer orders.
These days, I spend much more time sitting in my car waiting for offers. Across Seattle, drivers are now waiting nearly FIVE times longer than they did in September 2023, before the standard went into effect. Dashers like me are now forced to wait an average of 20 minutes between offers. That’s not because we’re working less — it’s because the work just isn’t there.
Those waiting periods aren’t paid. It’s time I’m not earning, even though I’m available and ready to work. When orders finally do come in, they’re often spaced so far apart that it’s hard to make a shift worthwhile.
Even with higher per-delivery pay requirements, my weekly earnings are down. With fewer deliveries available, I’m completing fewer orders per shift. That’s less money in my pocket for groceries, rent, childcare, and all the other things I rely on these deliveries to cover.
In fact, a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research in December confirmed that for highlight active drivers like me, we’re getting fewer opportunities to dash, which, combined with lower tips, has completely offset the higher base pay designated by the policy, and resulted in zero effect on monthly earnings. Zero! These economists used impartial data to prove that the delivery fees destroyed ‘elastic demand’ AND delivery work in Seattle.
If our elected officials had talked to us, they would have understood better that delivery depends on balance. Customers need prices they can afford. Restaurants need enough volume to stay profitable. Drivers need steady demand to earn consistently. When one part of that system gets pushed too far out of balance, everything else suffers.
Right now, Seattle has the highest delivery fees in the country — more than twice what customers pay in similar cities. That might look like protection in theory, but in practice, it’s driving demand away. A higher rate doesn’t help my fellow delivery drivers or me if there are no orders attached to it.
What does this mean for us in the long term? Fewer orders mean fewer opportunities to earn. It means less flexibility, more uncertainty, and more unpaid time between deliveries. That’s not what most of us signed up for.
I don’t want to go back to a system where drivers are underpaid or taken advantage of. But I also don’t want policies that sound good to voters but make it harder to earn in real life. We shouldn’t have to choose between fair pay and functional work.
Two years in, it’s time for Seattle leaders to look honestly at the results. If the goal was to help drivers, restaurants, and communities, the current approach isn’t getting us there. We need to reform the delivery pay policy so that it protects drivers without pushing customers away and shrinking the work we depend on.
I’m proud of the work I do. I want to keep delivering in Seattle. But that’s only possible if the system actually works — not just on paper, but on the street, where drivers like me are waiting for the next order that may or may not come.
Gary Lardizabal is a Seattle-based app delivery driver. He testified at Seattle City Council meetings against Seattle’s App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance on several occasions.
