Getting food delivered in New York is simple. For the workers who do it, getting paid is not

NEW YORK — New Yorkers place more than 100 million food delivery orders every year through a very simple process: press a few buttons on an app and have it in their hands in about 30 minutes.

For the delivery people, the process is anything but simple. And it’s only gotten more complex since the city introduced a new wage formula designed to ensure they earn at least $18 an hour. Some of the largest app platforms, which opposed the change, responded by limiting employee hours, making it harder for customers to tip, and changing the way wages are calculated from week to week.

That leaves employees like Greiber Pineda scrambling to navigate opaque changes.

Pineda initially made so much from Uber Eats under the new wage system that when a snowstorm hit New York City in January, he was motivated to work 11 1/2 hours straight and transport 37 meals on his moped “through the cold, the snow, everything.” A few days later, the app changed his payment system and sent him about $200 instead of the $300 he expected.

“When we got paid, we were up in arms, like, ‘What happened here?’” Pineda, from Brooklyn, said in Spanish.

Frustrated, Pineda now spends more time on side jobs. On a recent weekday morning, he sold coffee and arepas to fellow delivery people from Venezuela and Colombia outside a Chick-fil-A across the street from the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn. Nearby, two workers from Guinea changed the oil on a scooter, while others from Latin America, China and Turkmenistan picked up orders for apps like Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash. The city estimates that, like Pineda, 39% of delivery drivers speak “less than good” English.

A few months ago, none of these workers were making an hourly wage. Like most food delivery workers in the US, they instead logged into the apps when they wanted and made money by accepting individual delivery orders. Some jobs made financial sense. Others may not even cover gas costs, but many employees said “yes” as many times as possible to get priority access to premium orders or other benefits on the gamified apps.

That’s no longer the case in New York, which on Dec. 4 became the first major city to set a wage floor for app-based food delivery workers. Seattle followed suit in January with a similar law that extends to almost all app-mediated work.

Before the change, New York City surveyed its estimated 122,000 delivery drivers and found they earned an average of $14 an hour. Half of that came from tips and about $2 went to equipment and maintenance, mainly for e-bikes and mopeds.

Exposed to deadly traffic and violent attacks, they worked dangerous jobs but didn’t even earn the city’s minimum wage, which rose from $15 to $16 this year.

“This is one of the ways, one of the few ways an immigrant can make ends meet, at least in this expensive city,” Pineda said.

While some workers say they are earning less under the new rules, labor organizers and app companies say average earnings have increased. But the apps still save on costs and have the advantage of being able to see their employees’ data while they figure out how to do that.

“Delivery companies are still undermining or trying to undermine the minimum wage victory by being less transparent,” said Ligia Gullalpa, executive director of the Workers Justice Project.

None of the major app companies operating in New York City responded to a request for detailed payroll statistics. They defended reducing working hours as a key to reducing downtime, in line with the law’s incentives.

“Seattle & New York City has not considered the negative consequences of their actions,” Uber Eats spokesperson Josh Gold said in an email, adding that he believes there are better options to protect worker flexibility, such as a California law which recategorizes gig workers as independent contractors. .

DoorDash spokesperson Eli Scheinholtz in a statement called the laws in both cities “extreme,” adding that “the end result has been the same: higher fees for consumers, fewer orders for merchants and less work for Dashers.”

When the law went into effect in New York, both apps announced that customers in the city would no longer be able to add a tip during checkout, but would only make it available after a driver was assigned in DoorDash’s case, or after it food was delivered for Uber Eats. . Apps also introduced additional fees for New York City customers, starting around $2. Fees for restaurants are capped at 23% of the purchase price.

The New York City rule allows apps to pay an average of about $30 per hour for the “active time” employees spend delivering orders, or an average of $18 per hour for the entire time they are logged in, including “passive time ” that they spend waiting for an order. function. The apps don’t have to pay employees who don’t make deliveries. Companies can also decide retroactively which of the two calculations to use, so delivery drivers won’t know exactly what they’re getting paid for until a week later.

The move is likely why Pineda ended up with lower pay after the January storm, according to pay stubs and communications he and others shared with The Associated Press.

Seattle’s system only counts active time, paid at a minimum of 44 cents per minute, plus 74 cents per mile. There are no mileage charges in New York City.

“People depend on you to bring them food,” said Daniel Mendoza, a delivery person who gets coffee and breakfast from Pineda, and is also from Venezuela. “We make magic.”

Mendoza said in February that the new system had been more lucrative for him.

But on March 4, Doordash made the same move as Uber Eats, angering Pineda. It’s impossible to say whether Mendoza’s pay will increase or decrease, but it will become less predictable.

In a statement, Doordash said the payment method it had been using since December was unsustainable and that workers like Mendoza “may also be eligible for additional weekly wage adjustments.”

GrubHub spokesperson Najy Kamal said in a statement that delivery workers in both New York and Seattle generally earn more, and that the company is committed to meeting the new wage standards.

In the meantime, Pineda continues to make money the old-fashioned way. While serving delivery people near the Chick-fil-A recently, an employee of the fast-food chain stuck his head in the door and shouted, asking what kind of arepas he had. Beef, Pineda’s friend shouted back.

“I’ll take two,” he said, waiting for her to deliver them to him – in exchange for some paper money.