Uber Is Very Worried About Delivery Workers
They Just Want to Help Working Families by Repealing Minimum Wage
In January, city hall removed the minimum wage loophole for food delivery workers. That means companies like UberEats and DoorDash finally have to pay their workers minimum wage.
Any reasonable person would think that, here in civilization, we could celebrate and that would be the end of it.
But the corporate behemoths struck back.
Uber is, of course, known for unusually rapacious business practices, flouting the law, and doing its best to evade basic regulation. Having made a mere $1.4B in profit last year, they are dead set against paying their workers even minimum wage.
Love the Gaslighting In This Place
So they gathered their PR people and lobbyists and started a fake grassroots campaign (this is called “astroturfing”) to convince people that minimum wage is really bad for workers.
Because everyone knows Uber and DoorDash are all about their workers.
Their PR push is showing up everywhere. One of the most ridiculous is a twitter bot (or poorly staffed twitter account, it’s hard to tell) representing the “WA Alliance for Innovation and Independent Work.”
A blue check? I’m shocked!
They apparently think we are all dumb enough to believe that giant silicon valley backed companies are actually some sort of alliance of workers, and that paying people less than minimum wage is remotely innovative.
(Friendly reminder that decades of economic evidence shows that claims of minimum wages hurting workers is a lie.)
Then came the stories they clearly pitched in succession to different news organizations. Their favorite false rumor seems to be that workers now make $26 per hour.
But the lobbyists peddling this know full well that a portion of each working hour is reserved for waiting and that this equals out to the delivery drivers making the minimum wage for the time they have to set aside to do their jobs.
In short, these companies would rather lie to you than pay their workers minimum wage. After all, what’s a little lie compared to screwing over low wage workers who don’t get health insurance from their employer? Scruples are apparently for suckers.
Cue the conservatives posing as centrists chiming in. These people pretend there is something moderate about opposing minimum wages. One of them was, as expected, Sara Nelson, who more or less works for lobbyist Tim Ceis and the PACS that bought her the Seattle City Council presidency. She is “very worried.”
The truth of the matter here is pretty straightforward. Workers are finally guaranteed to get paid the minimum wage. Minimum wages like this are supported in red and blue states, in the economic literature, by unions and regular citizens. This law was passed with unanimous support from the council, including Nelson, and support from Mayor Harrell in 2022.
But the companies clearly think with a new council in hock to Seattle Chamber First Husband Tim Ceis and the PACs he organized to buy the council race, they have a chance at going back to sub-minimum wages.
So to up the ante, the delivery companies have been spitefully adding an obnoxious five dollar fee to every bill.
This is of course totally unnecessary as an economic choice. They could pay their workers at least minimum wage without doing anything remotely this drastic–ask any pizza place with its own delivery drivers.
Plus, WHOOPS, these companies got caught charging this fee in places as far flung as Mill Creek, 20 miles outside the boundaries of the minimum wage law.
The truth is, DoorDash and UberEats are simply spitting in consumers’ food because they are angry that they have to pay minimum wage. They think they can blame the spit on the rules, rather than their own lack of scruples, they can win the political battle.
Rather than absorb the cost of paying what every other company in the country has to pay, or raising rates just enough to cover the actual cost increase, their choice is instead to twist the knife to try to create an outcry and get their way.
Stay strong, and don’t be bamboozled by their BS.