Seattle report says gig worker pay law is working, disputes claims by DoorDash and Uber – GeekWire
Seattle’s gig worker pay law, which requires minimum pay rates for software delivery workers, has been one of the most controversial labor trials in the country for more than two years.
Now the city is hitting back at critics — including delivery giants DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart — with what it calls the most comprehensive dataset ever compiled on the subject.
The takeaway: Workers are earning more, order numbers are up, and demand has held up during the first 18 months of the law, according to the report, which includes 92,000 workers and $15 million in contributions across five major delivery platforms.
Whether the controversy ends remains to be seen. DoorDash, Uber, and industry-backed groups have long argued that the law destroys orders, lowers drivers’ wages, and raises costs for consumers. The Carnegie Mellon study, published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, reached similar conclusions using data from a third-party pilot application.
But the city says that previous analysis relied on incomplete or self-selected data.
The report shows that “thoughtful public policy can rise to the challenge of ensuring fair compensation for stage workers while maintaining consumer access,” said James Parrott, a senior fellow at the New York City Media Center at The New School, in a news release.
The new report is based on records the five largest delivery companies are required by law to submit to the Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS), including all work and all offers on their platforms within 18 months after the law takes effect in January 2024.
Among the key findings:
- The average “online time pay,” the broadest measure of how much workers earn after accounting for all travel time, mileage, and other expenses, was $15.98 an hour, up from pre-regulation rates of $3.17.
- Weekly completed offers grew by 3.2% over the same period, contrary to industry claims of a continued decline in demand.
- Tips and bonuses make up a smaller portion of earnings, and base salary now accounts for the majority of workers’ compensation. Some companies changed their operating systems to discourage tipping after the law went into effect.
- Carrier fees charged to customers average 19.3% of total order fees. The law itself doesn’t charge a fee, but companies have added “Seattle regulatory fees” in response. Demand grew despite expansion.
The report has limitations. Companies were only required to start submitting data when the law came into force, so there is no basis for a previous provision from the same sources. And privacy restrictions prevent OLS from tracking individual workers across platforms, meaning that hours-per-worker figures may count people who use multiple applications.
DoorDash has pushed back against law enforcement. In a February data release, the company said its Seattle drivers earned 20% less per hour for the app in 2024 than in 2023, with the decline reaching nearly 25% in the third quarter of 2025.
The company also said that Seattle shoppers pay the highest delivery fees in the country, more than 3.5 times the average for similar cities like Denver, Portland, and San Francisco.
The Carnegie Mellon study, on the other hand, used data from Gridwise, a third-party salary tracking app, covering about 3,700 employees over six months. OLS says that the sample is self-selected from heavy users and represents about 4% of the workers captured in its report.
OLS plans to continue analyzing quarterly data from companies, expand coverage to smaller platforms without delivery, and conduct qualitative research with employees to understand how they feel about the law.
We’ve reached out to representatives for DoorDash, Uber, and Instacart for comment on the OLS report and will update this story with any responses.
