Cory Doctorow Critiques Gig Work Wages
Author and activist Cory Doctorow argues that minimum wage laws for gig platforms are often misleading because they don't account for unpaid "waiting time." In a new essay, he emphasizes that the effective pay rate is what matters, not the nominal hourly rate. He contends this structure perpetuates precarity and exploitation in the platform economy.
- In New York City, a minimum pay rate for app-based restaurant delivery workers went into full effect on April 1, 2025, reaching $21.44 per hour before tips. This rate is designed to provide parity with the state's minimum wage and account for expenses and lack of benefits. Before this law, these workers earned an average of just $5.39 per hour before tips. - Seattle's "PayUp" ordinance, which took effect in January 2024, requires delivery apps to pay workers the city's minimum wage of $19.97 per hour, plus mileage compensation. However, there have been efforts to roll back these protections, with a proposal to reduce the mileage compensation, which critics argue would lower the effective wage to a sub-minimum level. - California's Proposition 22, which was passed in 2020 after significant spending by gig companies, classifies app-based drivers as independent contractors. This means they are only entitled to be paid for "engaged time"—the period between accepting a request and completing the delivery or ride—and not for the time spent waiting for a job. - Under Proposition 22, the guaranteed earnings floor is 120% of the minimum wage for "engaged hours," plus $0.30 per "engaged mile." This has been criticized as potentially leading to an effective hourly wage as low as $5.64, when waiting time is factored in. - Doctorow's critique often highlights the concept of "algorithmic wage discrimination," where platforms can offer different pay rates to two workers for the same job under the same conditions, based on what the algorithm determines each worker is likely to accept. - The core of the issue is the distinction between "engaged time" with a passenger or a delivery, and "waiting time" or "on-call time." While gig companies argue that paying for idle time is not fair to their business model, critics contend that this unpaid time is a necessary part of the job that benefits the platform by ensuring driver availability. - In contrast to the gig work model, traditionally employed delivery drivers, such as those for a pizzeria, are typically paid from the moment they clock in for their shift until they clock out, regardless of whether they are actively on a delivery. - Gig work platforms have pushed back against these minimum wage laws, sometimes by adding new fees for consumers and blaming the new regulations, which has in some cases led to a decrease in demand.
