“Whether we’re working full time or working to supplement income, fair pay is fair pay.”
Orlando Santana, DoorDash & Amazon Flex worker, Seattle
I discovered gig work when I was let go of a full-time job. My background is in photography and graphic design, but when I was laid off right before Thanksgiving, gig work helped me pay the bills and not put the burden on my wife to meet all our financial needs. I’ve been doing gig work of some sort since 2017 — mostly Amazon Flex and DoorDash these days, but I’ve also worked on Instacart, Wag, and Shipt.
Amazon Flex is the #1 app for me — but it’s harder to rely on because the Fresh and Prime Now delivery work blocks go fast, so you have to get them where you can. I work on Flex maybe 3 or 4 times a month. Work blocks are usually around two hours and pay $21/hour, but if you finish your deliveries early you’re supposed to go back to the station and pick up more orders.
Back in 2021, the FTC ordered Amazon to pay out $61.7 million of tips they withheld from gig workers. I received money from this settlement.
It was astonishing and disappointing that somebody you contract with and work hard for would withhold money from you.
I’ve been using DoorDash a lot more lately because I started working at the daycare my wife works at, and it’s easier to get DoorDash jobs to work around my new schedule. But the pay is terrible. The other day, I’d planned to work four hours, but I quit after an hour and a half because it wasn’t worth it. You’ll get orders in Federal Way that send you out to Auburn, easily 40 minutes of driving, and you only get paid $5 or $6.
The way apps have stolen tips and switched around pay models in the past really creates a lack of trust and transparency.
I’ve heard representatives from DoorDash and Instacart at the PayUp City Council hearings say the average worker is making $28/hour — personally, I’ve never made even close to that much.
The one thing I do agree with the app companies on is that flexibility is really important. I rely on the flexibility of this work to spend time with my family, to go to functions with my nieces and nephews, that a normal 9 to 5 wouldn’t allow. But even though gig companies call us independent contractors, we have no say in our work. We cannot negotiate our pay, we have to accept what they offer, and that can go down from one day to the next or even one order to the next.
So I’m in support of the PayUp campaign to bring transparency and fair pay.
I hear the company lobbyists say this isn’t meant to be a full-time job, it’s meant to supplement income. Whether or not that’s true for each individual, it doesn’t matter.
I’ve been in both positions, relying on gig work as a full-time income and using it to make extra money on the side. Fair pay is fair pay, no matter the type of work we’re doing.