"What do these companies think “enough hours” are, if working full time is not sufficient?"
JEAN KALLAS, GRUBHUB DRIVER, SEATTLE
My name is Jean Kallas, I’m a member of the Pay Up campaign and a driver for Grubhub here in Seattle.
From 2016 until December 2021, I worked as a housing case manager with a local non-profit. I experienced burn out and developed chronic migraines while working through the pandemic and needed to find less stressful and more flexible work. I tried out gig work in the fall of 2021 and began working for Grubhub full time at the beginning of 2022. The flexibility offered by gig work is ideal for anyone having to take unexpected time off for chronic medical conditions, and the pay when I first began was adequate to meet my needs.
However, with inflation raising the cost of food and other necessities, and well as gas prices reaching over $5/gallon, pay as it stands is no long enough. Even with a fuel efficient car, I’m spending over $100 a week on fuel alone, a necessary expense for me just to do my job. As contracted workers, we are responsible for finding and paying for our own health insurance, car insurance, and all maintenance to our vehicles. My car insurance rates went up when I began this work, I struggled to find affordable health insurance that would cover my medical needs, and basic maintenance costs, such as oil changes have almost doubled from what they were last year, and which I now need to get much more often. Even after carefully selecting health insurance, when I started a new, and necessary medication, I was told a 30 day supply would be $400 with insurance.
On top of these expenses, we gig workers are responsible for paying federal taxes as both employee and employer, in essence doubling the tax on our income, while companies like Grubhub and Doordash get to skirt around this responsibility. I have heard the arguments that these are separate issues, and not the responsibility of these companies, or that if drivers simply worked enough hours, they would make enough to survive. I work between 40 and 50 hours a week, on weekends, during lunch and dinner rushes, and often working late into the night if orders keeps coming.
What do these companies think “enough hours” are, if working full time is not sufficient?
And while many of the issues are not under the control of delivery based companies, they are responsible for offering pay that meets the needs of their contractors. Were we in almost any other field, as private contractors, we would be able to negotiate our salaries or rates. In this industry, these companies set the rates, and we are forced to accept. This proposed legislation is our only recourse.
Delivery companies like Grubhub and Doordash argue that this policy will lead to high costs for consumers. On top of working for Grubhub, I also use their services and have for many years. Prices have steadily risen, while pay for workers has remained largely unchanged. This is a tired argument, used by almost all industries when confronted with having to pay their workers livable wages. Prices go up with or without workers seeing a benefit. Gig workers are not asking for outrageous wealth, or making untenable demands of these companies. We are asking that we make enough to cover our basic needs of housing and food; to be able to keep our vehicles running so we can continue to work; to continue to enjoy the flexibility that was promised to us upon signing up for this work; to know exactly what we are agreeing to upon accepting a job. I’m having to do 6 days weeks rather than 5 usually twice a month. This impacts my stress level, and makes it harder to care for my medical needs, which was the whole point in switching to this work. We are asking for the ability to continue to do this work in the communities we live in and serve.