Dating back to the start of pandemic up until now, food delivery drivers and workers are essential to our community, considering they’re risking their lives to give customers a fast-paced service. Unfortunately, platforms like UberEats, Doordash, Grubhub, Postmates, Instacart, etc. fail to provide fair wages for their employees.
Most dashers, Doordash employees, for example, rely mostly on customer tips to make an income. Food delivery personnel take huge risks of contracting COVID-19 through public interaction. Tipping your driver only $2 for an order that’s worth $45 is far too low.
According to the Huffington Post, Doordash employees make about $2 to $10 per hour, with many orders being unaccompanied by a tip. The Huffington Post recommends that customers tip anywhere from 10% to 20% – and that tipping 20% should be normalized due to risks, time, effort and efficiency that food delivery drivers partake in.
Many of the employees of these platforms include college students, disabled individuals, side hustlers, teenagers and people in urgent need of bringing in income. These individuals go out of their way to provide a fast, efficient and contactless delivery. Exceeding the bare minimum these essential works do not receive the credit they deserve and should receive a decent tip from their customer.
If you’ve been hit hard by the economic stress and aren’t financially able to provide a high tip, that’s okay, but everyone who is able to afford tipping extra or even the bare minimum, should do it.
There are many food delivery drivers working long hours, only to make about $3 to $6 per hour utilizing their own vehicle, increasing the miles on their car driving large distances regardless of weather conditions and yet do not receive tips. It’s unfair to have someone do the convenient work for someone else and not even receive the minimum wage of $15 per hour in Los Angeles County.
A few months ago, New York City passed a bill enabling food delivery drivers to be better protected and help them receive better working conditions. California also launched Prop 22, which stated how gig workers are entitled to specific earnings.
While all of this is good news, food delivery workers still don’t make as much as they deserve due to negligentful customers’ refusal to tip. Customers fail to have the common courtesy of tipping these gig workers, which leads them to making less than minimum wage.
Food delivery workers deserve to be paid minimum wage for the amount of effort they undergo. Customers of food or grocery delivery platforms who can afford to tip have no excuse. It shouldn’t even be a question whether or not to tip your delivery driver, because they are essential workers risking their lives so you can conveniently get your food/groceries delivered to your doorstep within an hour or less.
