Posted on 03/17/2024 9:04:23 AM PDT by CFW
In 2022, Seattle's City Council passed an ordinance mandating a minimum earnings floor for app-based food delivery drivers in the city. The law finally went into effect in January 2024, but so far the main result has been customers deleting their delivery apps en masse, food orders plummeting, and driver pay cratering.
The ordinance, part of a legislative package called "PayUp," was passed under the banner of protecting gig workers. By setting a compensation floor for app-based delivery drivers based on miles driven and amount of time worked, the ordinance operates as a (supremely complicated) minimum wage.
The wage floor is based on labyrinthine calculations: the "engaged minutes" for drivers are multiplied by a "minimum wage equivalent rate," which is then multiplied again by an "associated cost factor" and then multiplied yet again by an "associated time factor."
[snip]
Heralded as a "first-of-its-kind" legislative breakthrough when it passed, the first two months of the ordinance's operation have provided a grim real-world Economics 101 lesson. First, the delivery companies were forced to add a $5 fee onto delivery orders in the city to cover the sudden labor cost increase. On cue, news stories started popping up of $26 coffees, $32 sandwiches, and $35 Wingstop orders in which taxes and the new fee comprised nearly 30 percent of the total
[snip]
Meanwhile, the president of the City Council claims she is "very worried" about the ordinance's impacts so far—and even argues that "it's not the role of policymakers to regulate the profit margins of companies"—before going on to say "I'm not going to redo the whole legislation."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Nossir. That is the LIBERAL motto.
It really does cost significant money to have to order delivered to your door. It’s a luxury.
“The law ensures that the drivers—who are independent contractors—are paid a “minimum wage equivalent rate” and receive the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) standard mileage reimbursement”
with a $5/order minimum.
And the market can account for that better than any legislation.
The residents of the city voted the city council in, and they are responsible for this. No cares given.
” the delivery companies were forced to add a $5 fee onto delivery orders in the city to cover the sudden labor cost increase”
The drivers were certainly getting paid something significant before the law went into effect, so having a $5 order minimum doesn’t require adding on a whole new $5 fee.
The law is doing exactly what it was supposed to do..........,........
No kidding. It took them TWO YEARS to write the legislation and it took the companies ten minutes to adjust prices and add delivery surcharges to compensate for the disastrous legislation.
If it weren’t for government interference, this would be the most prosperous country in the world, with the vast majority enjoying the benefits of living in this country.
But liberals don’t think so. Their whole purpose for existing is to destroy anything and everything that works.
Not a disaster for Deep State...
Here is a FR thread on the law when passed a couple years ago. Freepers apparently have crystal balls. Many predicted it would be a disaster.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4067937/posts
Seattle Socialists can’t get it through their thick skulls that America is still a Capitalistic System that is still working. Seems these clowns are trying to destroy it and it is backfiring on them.
The beauty of this misguided legislation is now they want more legislation to fix easily foreseen collateral damage.
It is hilarious. I don’t care. I don’t use these services and don’t live anywhere near Seattle.
If I want a sandwich, I go to the kitchen. No phone required.
There isn't an honest economist on the planet who couldn't have foreseen this. Gives new meaning to the Seattle motto when Boeing threatened to leave: "Will the last person to leave Seattle please turn off the lights."
I live just north of Seattle, and I see a LOT of Uber orders at a fast-food place that I frequent. I’ve never seen so many before. Maybe the Seattle law is pushing people to order from places just outside of the city.
All they need now is a rule mandating that, under penalty of law, everyone must use some number of food deliveries each year...
I live north of Seattle and discovered a few weeks ago that Instacart is now adding an additional ten percent to all orders. I called Instacart and they told me that this is an extra fee in Washington state due to the new law.
On the other hand, Amazon Fresh charges no delivery fee on food orders over $100. Amazon must be absorbing these new costs, unlike Kroger and Safeway.
Is there a law against paying for a pizza delivered to your house with all the toppings slid off the pizza and piled on the one side of the box?
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