HOST
New York City is now one of the only cities in the country to pay food delivery drivers a minimum wage. As of December, delivery apps like GrubHub and DoorDash must pay workers a minimum of $18 per hour, plus tips. But as Iryna Humenyuk reports, some delivery app drivers say loopholes make it hard to understand their pay.
HUMENYUK 1
It’s a little before sunset at the Adja Khady Halal Meat and Fish Market, just off 115th and Frederick Douglas Boulevard. It’s in the heart of Little Senegal. A group of Senegalese food-delivery drivers are about to break their Ramadan fast.
[FADE IN: SOUND OF DELIVERY APP DRIVERS EATING]
There are clusters of e-bikes and mopeds grouped around many restaurants. Serigne Modou Diouf, an immigrant from Senegal says this is one of the only jobs he can get:
DIOUF 1
On est sans papiers. Donc on travaille avec Doordash mais l’application donne des difficultés. Parfois on connecter à l’application on reçoit pas des commandes. On reste deux heures ou trois heures sans commande.
[VOICEOVER: ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
We don’t have a working permit. So we work with Doordash but the app comes with difficulties. Sometimes we connect to the app but we don’t receive any orders. We spend two or three hours without being assigned any work.
HUMENYUK 2
A city law in effect late last year established a baseline hourly wage for workers with two rates–either a flat $18 an hour for all time on the clock, or $30 an hour for the trips themselves.
The Consumer and Worker Protection Board of New York City says that delivery apps don’t need to tell their workers which pay structure they’re using.
So for drivers like Diouf it’s hard to know what they’re actually taking home.
DIOUF 2
Normalement ça va être équitable. Si tu fais cinq heures, tu es payé cinq heures. Mais les applications font pas ca. Il respecte pas la loi. On comprend pas. Je peux faire trente-cinq heures, mon ami il a fait vingt heures et il a plus paie que moi.
[VOICEOVER: ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
Normally it would be fair. If you work five hours, you get paid five hours. But the apps don’t do this. They don’t respect the law. We don’t understand why. I can work for thirty five hours, my friend will work twenty hours, and he’ll have a higher pay than me.
HUMENYUK 3
Whether it’s related to the new minimum wage or not–some drivers say it just seems like people are accruing penalties more easily. On Doordash, if you get three violations on your account—you’re blocked from using the app, forever.
DIOUF 3
Le client a le possibilité de disliker la commande. Parfois tu passes la commande et tu peux dire tu as pas recevoir la commande. Il y a des gènes malhonnêtes.
[VOICEOVER: ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
The client can complain about an order. But sometimes you complete an order and the client will lie and say he never received it. There are people who aren’t honest.
HUMENYUK 4
Another delivery app worker, Papa Bamba, says despite these complications he’s grateful to have the work.
BAMBA 1
Il y a plus de gagnants que de perdants.
[VOICEOVER: ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
There is more won than is lost.
HUMENYUK 5
Bamba says the real problem with the apps lies in the fact that labor laws are so restrictive, undocumented workers log on under each others’ accounts all the time. They’ll find someone who has a social security number and has registered with a delivery company legally. And then they’ll swap this single account between several people.
BAMBA 2
Tu vois, le gars qu'il a créé c'est pas lui qui va payer les pots cassés. C’est le gars qui lui a prêté le papier, celui qui va payer les pots cassés.
[VOICEOVER: ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
You see, the guy that fulfills the order, he is not the one that has to pay for the spilled orders. It’s the one that gave the papers for the account, it’s him that has to pay.
HUMENYUK 6
Erin Hatton teaches sociology at SUNY Buffalo with the focus on the gig economy. About NYC’s effort to establish a minimum wage, she says . . .
HATTON 1
It's a little bit like an inch forward. Increasing wages for these workers is meaningful, right? That's important. So I don't want to denigrate that in any way.
HUMENYUK 7
But . . . Hatton says the real problem is that these companies are using drivers full-time but are not being forced to treat them like full-time employees.
HATTON 2
They're not covered by the broader obligations that they have to these workers—issues around discrimination, issues around safety and liability. Issues around health insurance.
HUMENYUK 8
According to Hatton, companies like UberEats argue their workers are independent contractors because, well, they say they can start their shift whenever they want. This gives the illusion of control. Take tipping, for example.
HATTON 3
Companies can suddenly change who sets the tips, how people leave tips, whether they're given little options for tipping and how those are accessible—or how low or high those are. All of those are under the company's control, and they can change those at a whim. And that has very real material consequences for these workers.
HUMENYUK 9
So while larger questions about how delivery apps classify their workers will remain . . . drivers in N.Y.C. will continue to figure out how the new minimum wage laws are changing their take-home pay. Iryna Humenyuk, Columbia Radio News.
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