It's no secret that delivery workers and drivers aren't getting the wages they deserve for all their hard work. Rideshare app drivers already got their day in court and had their rates increased, and now app delivery workers will see an increase in pay as well.
Increased Delivery Worker Wage in NYC
New York City is doing well in making sure that workers in the driving industry are getting the pay they deserve, With a judge rejecting Uber, DoorDash, and Grubhub rejecting their requests to avoid the new law, they will soon have to pay their workers $18 per hour.
The base pay will not include tips and the companies will have to increase the wage yearly as well. This will take effect every April 1st, with the yearly increase taking place on the same date. The raise aims to also address the additional expenses that workers have.
According to Engadget, the average rate for delivery workers is currently around $7 to $11, which makes this a significant hike in minimum wage. The change could've been implemented earlier, but there were a few issues that had to be dealt with first.
Reports say that the New York Acting Supreme Court Justice, Nicholas Moyne has to postpone the implementation back in July due to lawsuits filed by a delivery service called Relay Delivery, claiming that the increase would affect the company negatively.
Now that the change is well on its way, food delivery services like Uber, DoorDash, and Grubhub will have to comply with the new rates. This will be the first time that app-based delivery companies will be required to adhere to the given minimum wage requirement.
On the downside, this might urge the companies to turn to delivery bots to evade the price hike. Although a more expensive route at first, the companies will actually save money in the long run as they will not have to pay the robots hourly wages.
Read Also: Uber, Serve To Deploy Robots in the US for Food Delivery
Delivery Workers are Grossly Underpaid
Food delivery drivers work as much as they can to make ends meet, and it's still sometimes not enough. 27-year-old delivery driver Nabin Adhikari says that even after 85 hours of work a week, the pay still doesn't come close to Australia's minimum wage.
He also worked for one of the mentioned companies, namely DoorDash and Uber Eats. Adhikari says that he was overworked since he was given an "unachievable" number of orders all while not being given decent pay, as per The New Daily.
In the delivery industry, a study from The McKell Institute showed that 81% of the delivery staff solely rely on their gig's earnings to pay for sustenance and bills. 45% are struggling to afford even necessary items like groceries and bills.
About 41% work 40 hours a week, which is less than half of what Nabin Adhikari does. 45% of the workers in the industry reported that they were earning less than the minimum wage, and that makes up approximately 112,000 workers.
Related: Amazon Claims Delivery Drivers on Strike Aren't Their Own Employees
