AN OPEN LETTER FROM SEATTLE GIG WORKERS • MAY 4, 2022

► Para ver la carta en español, haga clic aquí.

Dear Seattle City Council:

We are gig workers on apps like DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats, and Handy. We are people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and working-class people from all walks of life. Thousands of workers like us have been fighting since 2019 to end subminimum wages in the gig economy here in Seattle, and protect flexibility and transparency. We’re fighting for the PayUp policy because all workers need dignified wages to thrive and live a happy life.

For decades, US labor laws have included loopholes that disproportionately exclude workers of color, like farmworkers and domestic workers. Gig work is a repackaging of this same historical inequity, and it’s growing fast: 16% of US adults have done gig work, including 20% of Black adults and 30% of Latino adults.

Now that City Council has introduced PayUp, gig companies are arguing that it’s somehow “equitable” to allow them to continue paying subminimum wages to Black, Brown, and immigrant workers. Instead of paying us — the driving force of the entire gig economy — apps spend millions lobbying and even recruiting organizations like Seattle Latino Chamber of Commerce and Urban League to disguise their corporate rhetoric as anti-racism. They know Seattle cares about marginalized communities — so they’re using marginalized people as talking points.

As workers of color, we are disappointed to see local organizations help corporations argue against our needs. Lobbyists aren’t the ones doing the work. We’re the ones who pick up your dinner, shop for your groceries, walk your dogs, and clean your homes. We would be glad to invite these lobbyists to accompany us on a shift and see how we struggle to get by each day, putting in 60 to 70 hours a week just to cover our work expenses, rent, and bills.

Companies are making all kinds of threats: they say raising pay would lead to higher prices for customers, and threaten that this would hurt vulnerable groups who depend on app services. They say POC-owned restaurants and other businesses would see decreased sales. They say raising pay would somehow leave workers making less money. They threaten “unintended consequences” if we raise pay without first “studying” the novel idea of paying minimum wage.

Here’s the reality:

Paying gig workers doesn’t mean costs will go up. Apps are making record sales and they can afford to pay us.

While food delivery sales increased by over 200% since the beginning of the pandemic, worker pay has decreased. Most of the fees customers pay don’t go to workers; they go straight to the companies to spend on things like a $400 million annual salary for DoorDash’s CEO, $3 billion for Uber to research self-driving cars and flying taxis, and millions on lobbying against workers. Companies like to pretend they’re concerned about impacts on customers with disabilities or low incomes, but underpaying workers does not serve those communities. In fact, many of us gig workers have disabilities, and Uber and DoorDash are both in the top 15 WA companies with workers relying on food stamps.

Underpaying workers doesn’t help POC-owned businesses — paying Black and Brown workers enough to get by does.

Black and Brown businesses don’t suffer from Black and Brown workers getting paid — they suffer from institutionalized racism, including predatory corporate practices like gig companies taking a huge cut of delivery sales from restaurants. Customers and businesses already pay huge amounts of money to use apps — but right now, that money gets siphoned away from our community to multi-billion dollar corporations out of state. As workers, our income goes back into our local community, including small businesses. Underpaying workers of color simply does not help POC-owned businesses succeed.

Paying gig workers more means we’ll make more money, not less. App companies claim raising pay will mean we get fewer “earnings opportunities” — but in reality, when we’re earning more we won’t need to work excessive hours.

Apps invest heavily in advertising and recruitment to flood their platforms with new workers who find promise in sign-on bonuses, only to see low-paying jobs they accept in desperation. Workers are forced to compete for scraps in hopes that we’ll eventually get access to better jobs. But the pay only goes down, leaving us working more and more hours to get by. With a pay floor, we’ll be consistently paid a transparent and fair wage for each job. That means we won’t have to work excessive hours, and apps will spend more on our pay and less on constant recruitment to flood their platforms. We’ll be able to leave offers for others and have more time to live our lives.

The PayUp policy was developed with input from thousands of workers, a year of stakeholdering with Seattle City Council, and extensive engagement of gig companies. It’s the right path forward, and it’s time for action.

Apps know they can’t get away with paying subminimum wages forever, so they’re trying to stall another couple years by insisting on an “impact study” before PayUp passes. It’s hard to believe their concern has anything to do with how a pay floor would impact our community, because they certainly didn’t conduct a study before lowering pay for 40,000+ workers to $2 a job. It’s 2022. We decided a century ago that workers need a minimum wage. No one needs a study to know that paying subminimum wages hurts workers and our communities.

Don’t fall for it. App companies have more than doubled revenue since 2020, but they claim they’ll go broke if they pay us minimum wage. The money is there. There’s more than enough for everyone to be financially healthy. It just needs to be fairly distributed.

Throughout US history, companies have worked to get labor costs as close to $0 as possible by creating an excluded class of primarily POC and immigrant workers. Workers like domestic workers, farmworkers, train porters, and restaurant workers have faced subminimum pay. Now gig companies are spending millions to make it happen again — only they’ve learned to couch their old-school exploitation in Seattle-friendly “equity” language. Don’t fall for it. There’s no argument to be made that excluding marginalized people from basic rights is good for marginalized people.

Let’s move forward. Let’s make Seattle a real leader for equity nationwide. Pass PayUp now.

Signed,

Seattle gig workers, including:
James Thomas
Maria Hernandez
Kimberly Wolfe
Carmen Figueroa
Wei Lin
Michelle Balzer
Bobby Bourne
Magnolia Klee
Talisha Herald
Shelby Hansen
Pablo Camano
Mandolin Noir
Kidane Beyene
Orlando Santana

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