Overview
- The case I will talk about is the moral challenge about enforcing minimum wages for food delivery drivers. On July 12, 2023, NYC enacted a law to require companies like doordash, uber and grubhub to pay delivery drivers 50 cents per minute they are on the trip.
- This case highlights the rights of delivery drivers as legitimate workers, legitimate in the sense of enjoying the rights of a full-time worker as in an company, although a small step. Reasonably, delivery companies fought hard against it, but without success.
- This situation is reported in multiple platforms like food&wine, reuters, the guardian, etc. By now, only NYC has this kind of law within the entire united states, and this is expected to be followed by other areas as well.
- I chose this case because I have ordered a lot of deliveries, and they saved me a lot of time and effort. This case along with others exposed the harsh working conditions of the person who brought me my food, and I think they really worth exploring.
Key facts
- Delivery apps boomed after pandemic, delivery workers joined as gig workers and can choose their own working hours.
- Delivery drivers are basically trapped within the algorithm designed by apps, and they can face massive backlashes on their commission fee if they failed to deliver foods on time, or received negative reviews form customers. So they are forced to drive very dangerously to satisfy customers, and deliver foods on time.
- Also, like other food service industries, tips consists of a large portion of a delivery driver’s total income, around one third to one half. Without tips, a driver can earn only $4 an hour. This combined with previous factors generally means that a delivery driver are not having an ensured income on the job that they relied heavily on.
- Now that the law has passed in NYC this April, delivery companies are making it harder for drivers to access their platforms and hiding tipping options from customers. By limiting the working hours of drivers, their en-route time would be smaller, and they will be paid less wages.
Ethical analysis
- The key issue in this case is the conflict of interest between delivery workers and companies that are operating such platforms. Drivers want, and in fact, need a more stable source of income. As previously said, they are literally risking their lives during their work, the work that they relies heavily on.
- Companies are losing money over the operation of delivery platforms, and if they are required to pay a minimum wage to their drivers, it would only make them losing even more money. Nationwide, they have spent millions of dollars to prevent these kinds of laws from enacting.
- To me, the delivery drivers are obviously winning this case. It might seem that they are choosing the working hours by themselves, but in reality, their work and eventual income is dominated by the algorithm developed by the delivery companies.
- Just like employments, those delivery drivers are essentially employed by those companies. When you employ someone, you naturally need to pay them minimum wages. Drivers are working for you, and you pay for their work, it’s that simple.
- And now because of company’s many dirty moves, many drivers that previously advocated for the minimum wage law have started regretting their decisions. One driver said that he can earn $60 per hour with tips previously, but it’s no longer worth it to braving a deluge for minimum wage.
Options & Decision & Justification
- Considering the full picture of this case, the options here are simple: Whether to let customers to primarily pay delivery drivers by tipping, or let companies to primarily pay delivery drivers by paying a minimum fee
- I would argue that the second option is what the companies should do, and the current minimum wage laws should keep in effect. Drivers really deserve a secured income to pay for their expenses in their delivery works, and companies have the moral duty to do so.
- The previous option is really not the best, because it transfered the conflict to customers vs delivery drivers, they are not earning because customers are not tipping. Tips are used to appreciate delivery driver’s effort, IN ADDITION TO their base income, NOT THE ACTUAL INCOME.
- If paying drivers a minimum wage means raising the ordering fees, just let the decision to be made by customers. It is totally up to themselves to pay for delivery or not. But, if they chose to have their food delivered, it must be ensured that their drivers are reasonably paid.
- If the fee increases, naturally less customer will order deliveries. This is expected. If companies are intentionally discouraging drivers from receiving orders, that’s completely another story, and regulations should be put in place to prevent this from happening.
Conclusion
- In conclusion, companies should pay their delivery drivers a minimum wage, and raise the delivery fee if necessary. The burden of paying delivery drivers should be ultimately on the company’s side, not customer’s tips. There is a huge difference between a customer not tipping and a customer not ordering altogether because of heightened cost.
- These are my references and
Tipping on Delivery Apps Is Becoming Harder
Food Delivery Apps: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – YouTube
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