Today, the Washington Supreme Court announced a ruling granting the right to fair pay and safe workplaces to tens of thousands of the mostly-immigrant care workers who protect and care for our elderly and disabled loved ones.
Read MoreGovernor signs Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
Workers, lawmakers, and coalition partners shared how the Bill of Rights will improve conditions for over 100,000 house cleaners, gardeners, nannies, and home care workers across Washington:
Read MoreAdult Family Home workers seek to end unjust labor protection exclusions
Fair Work Center, on behalf of workers, to argue before Washington Supreme Court that exclusions from minimum wage rights for live-in care workers are unconstitutional.
Read MoreGet Organized, Get Paid: Uber Owes $15 MILLION To 16,000
Seattle workers just made history. Thanks to nonstop worker organizing and the movement we’ve built together that ensures we don’t just win new laws but can actually enforce them, UberEats will be paying back $15 MILLION to over 16,000 delivery drivers.
This is a major victory. When we fought together to win higher pay and better workplaces through the #PayUp laws back in 2019, and then defended our rights from rollbacks by Councilmember Sara Nelson in 2024, we fought not just for higher standards but also the ability to make our rights real. We fought to ensure that workers have the tools to hold cheating corporations like UberEats accountable to our laws. Today’s settlement announcement proves that our fight’s paying off and corporations are paying up.
Now, thousands of us are getting the money we’re owed, and Seattle workers have shown the rest of the nation that organized workers WIN. Settlements like these send a message to other corporations that they won’t keep getting away with underpaying and exploiting us. It also reminds workers everywhere what’s possible when we stand up for one another and stand against corporate greed. WE. GET. PAID.
We need your help making sure every single one of the 16,120 workers who are owed money get our paycheck from UberEats. If you or someone you know may be one of the workers who UberEats tried to steal from, email comms@workingwa.org to let us know and we’ll follow up with you.
Washington state Senate advances the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, workers react
In a major victory for low-wage workers, the Washington state Senate passed the statewide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (SB 5023), taking Washington a significant step closer to ending the exclusions that shut domestic workers out of the right to minimum wage, sick time, breaks, and other basic labor standards.
Read More‘Finally’ – Seattle workers react to new $20.76 minimum wage rate
Seattle’s historic minimum wage law is set to finally take full effect on January 1, 2025. Ten years after the law passed, the city’s minimum wage will reach $20.76, without any special subminimum wage rate for tipped workers. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell also released his statement today, saying, "Seattle has one of the highest minimum wages in the country – this is a good thing for workers, a good thing for our overall economy, and something we should take pride in." Workers are reacting to the city's long-awaited minimum wage increase.
Read MoreNelson’s Gig Worker Sub-Minimum Wage Proposal Postponed at Eleventh Hour
For Immediate Release:
May 28, 2024
Contact: Hannah Sabio-Howell | hannah@workingwa.org
The worst pay standard proposal in the country postponed within an hour of Council’s scheduled vote, workers react
Following news of the postponement, delivery drivers remark on the proposal as a reflection of Seattle’s values that workers deserve a living wage and inclusion in stakeholdering about policies that affect us
Seattle, WA – Council President Sara Nelson announcing that she’s postponing the vote on her own policy to reduce gig workers’ wages, less than an hour before the vote was scheduled to take place, communicates two things.
One: worker organizing works. For the last four months, despite being deliberately excluded from any stakeholdering process on Nelson’s policy to gut the PayUp ordinance, workers have shown up at city hall to urge the council to protect minimum wage after expenses for all time worked, hold a meaningful stakeholdering process, and listen to workers. This abrupt delay is a sign that workers are gaining momentum.
Two: cutting low-wage workers’ wages is extremely unpopular and poor economic policy-making; Council President Nelson simply doesn’t have the support from her colleagues or the public to pass this pay cut into law.
Ultimately, this sudden change of plans reveals what workers already knew to be true: raising wages is good for Seattle, and cutting wages is supported by no one but app corporations. And those corporations dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into trying to mislead the public and lobbying councilmembers with the message that cutting workers’ pay is somehow good for workers, only to find out that the home of the Fight for $15 is true to its values. We all know that all Seattle workers deserve a living wage.
Comments from workers are included below. Contact Hannah Sabio-Howell to arrange an interview.
From Nick Lawrence, an UberEats, DoorDash, Instacart, and Roadie worker: “PayUp has meant I no longer have to work 60-hour weeks to get by. Without standards, gig work is a race to the bottom. I’ve been heartbroken watching city council move forward a corporate proposal to cut pay, but hundreds of gig workers have spoken out against the pay cut, and it looks like it’s working. I’m glad to see city council is finally listening, and I’m glad to have more time under the current pay standard so I can continue working a normal schedule.“
From Troy Donald, an UberEats and DoorDash delivery worker: “After minimum gig worker pay came out, I was making great money. Then Uber and DoorDash came out and said they want to cut the pay – so they can go back to paying $3 for orders that charge $20 in fees. Gig workers have been making it very clear: cutting our pay is not a solution to apps choosing to charge outrageous fees. And now it looks like city council is actually listening. It’s awesome to know that fellow drivers and supporters have slowed Sara Nelson’s progress.”
From Elena Martin, an Instacart worker: “I’m beyond excited that the vote is being postponed. I believe Sara Nelson may have thought it would be easy to make this change and that us gig workers wouldn’t care. I’m glad enough of us have shown up and participated in opposing this proposal that she is now seeing just how many of us this will affect and how many of us do care.”
From Mupopa Tshibuabua, an UberEats worker: “It’s important for workers that we keep the pay standard in place because now we can take every single job and it’s worth it. We can’t let Uber and DoorDash go back to paying $3 a job. As a driver, I certainly want to see struggling restaurants succeed. These restaurants should focus on corporate greed rather than equally struggling drivers as their obstacle to success. The postponement of today’s vote is a good sign for workers – let’s hope the council is taking the necessary time to reconsider the proposal clearly advocated by the lobbyists.”
From Justin Taylor, a DoorDash worker: “Sara Nelson wanted to rush her bill through city council because reducing pay for workers in Seattle is hugely unpopular, and she knows it. But because workers and their supporters showed up in opposition – and will continue to show up – there is now an opportunity for our voices to be heard. I’m hopeful the vote delay means that city council will engage in a true stakeholder process with the gig workers like myself who are directly affected by this bill.”
XXXX
Which side are they on? Uber’s, apparently.
TODAY, the Seattle City Council Governance Committee voted to side with Uber and DoorDash and cut gig workers’ pay to just $13.17/hour while rolling back their rights. Meanwhile, they did absolutely nothing to control the companies’ excessive junk fees – leaving Seattle workers, restaurants, and customers paying the cost of the apps’ greed. — ignoring the overwhelming sentiment at meeting after meeting to cut fees, not pay.
If that all sounds like a policy written by Uber & DoorDash, for Uber & DoorDash, that’s because it was. Nelson’s CB 120775 was crafted in a rushed, secret process entirely controlled by Uber, DoorDash, their lobbyists, and Drive Forward, an organization founded, funded, and controlled by Uber.
No other groups were part of the process — no groups representing workers, customers, immigrant communities, or national national experts on labor policy. The city’s Office of Labor Standards wasn’t even invited to participate. Just the apps, their lobbyists, and an organization they control. And they got what they paid for.
The vote was especially disappointing given that recent polling shows only 18% of Seattle voters support Seattle City Council President Nelson’s proposal to repeal gig workers’ minimum wage. In fact, 64 percent of voters support capping the fees that delivery apps like Uber and DoorDash can charge consumers. Everyone agrees – the fees are the problem, and yet this amendment does nothing to address them or to provide any support to local businesses.
Councilmember Hollingsworth’s vote to abstain and call for stakeholdering was a welcome moment, as she highlighted the urgent need for a process that brings workers and small businesses to the table.
The gig worker pay cut goes before the full council on May 28th. Ten years after becoming the first city to pass a $15 minimum wage, Seattle could soon become the first city to cut gig workers' pay to a subminimum wage, and intentionally exclude them from basic labor standards.
“Today’s vote is an unprecedented and targeted vote against workers. Seattle is one step closer to being the first major city to roll back gig worker pay to below minimum wage. This is still far from an ordinance that will help workers or local businesses. We are encouraged by Councilmember Hollingsworth’s interest in stakeholdering and developing data driven solutions that will actually meet the needs of Seattle’s workers and small businesses.” — Danielle Alvarado, Executive Director, Working Washington
More information:
The Nelson/Uber/DoorDash bill would cut pay to a subminimum wage of $13.17/hour. While it claims to pay the gross minimum wage, gig workers are responsible for paying all their own taxes and expenses out of that rate, and are only paid for their time actively delivering an order. Once you account for that additional time & expense, the bill pays $6.80/hour less than minimum wage.
Latest polling of Seattle voters shows only 18% support Seattle City Council President Nelson’s proposal to repeal gig workers’ minimum wage. By rushing through this corporate written legislation, the council is not listening to what their constituents clearly value.
Uber stated on their most recent earnings call that “we have been able to absorb the financial hit of all these different regulations in our platform. You've seen in our profitability, which is up over 80% in Uber Eats on a year-on-year basis.”
DoorDash recently reported gross profit margins of 44.9% — meaning that they pocket almost half of total customer fees, after paying the worker who did the actual work.
###
Gig workers, policy experts, and community supporters are available to discuss the implications of this proposal. Contact Hannah Sabio-Howell (hannah@workingwa.org) to arrange.
Nelson proposal would cut gig worker pay to $13.17/hour — more than $6 below Seattle’s minimum wage
A detailed analysis of delivery workers’ actual time and expenses shows CB 120775 would in fact leave delivery workers with net pay of just $13.17/hour — a full $6.80/hour less than Seattle’s minimum wage.
Read More