DoorDash still thinks you're an idiot
In an absolutely depressing bit of déjà vu, DoorDash's controversial tip-off policy – the one who generated a good amount of scandalous almost half a year ago – has received renewed attention this week and reminds us that DoorDash and companies like it continue to exploit workers even after plentiful (but ultimately inadequate) cries.
Policy Coverage – One That Seemed to Implement In 2017 Specifically Designed to Confuse Workers on How It Worked – reappeared this week after a New York Times reporter completed a 27-hour stint as a dasher (DoorDash- speak for the delivery workers). In his report on the experience, reporter Andy Newman wrote that he retired just under $ 10 an hour, which falls under the New York City's minimum wage. He also talked about his experiences with the company's tip model, which uses customer tips to supplement a worker's salary.
The policy has worked, until recently, by masking the breakdown of pay per delivery and using smart languages that claim that dashers hold "100 percent of customer tips." What actually happens is that DoorDash agrees to pay as little as $ 1 per delivery as part of a guaranteed minimum. So let's say a delivery promise a minimum of $ 8, and a customer tip $ 4 for the order. DoorDash will use the $ 4 tip against the base salary, will pay $ 1 and then cough up another $ 3 to make the difference. In other words, it serves $ 8 delivery driver instead of $ 12.
If this irritates you, it should. But it has also happened for many years. Despite a reliable tsunami of press coverage about the practice – in addition to a tech worker boycott and a San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement investigation – it continues. It's a sobering reminder that, short of consumers getting the hell out of the # DeleteUber campaign, companies are often more than happy to lay down and continue to fuck over their independent contractors.
Furthermore, DoorDash indicates that he is not willing to overcome this rigged payment system in any meaningful way, DoorDash announced co-founder and CEO Tony Xu in a blog post last month that – after what I can only assume was a hero impartial and thorough internal review of the policy – the pay model would remain in place. However, the company would begin to outline more clearly how the wages collapsed, Xu said, and actually just turned the workers on the face.
"Overall, we heard that Dashers appreciate openness and fair, steady earnings. With our current pay model, Dashers sees a guaranteed minimum – including tips – before accepting a delivery, ”said Xu, illustrating the type of handshake the company uses in their messages to assure the dashes that the company is not in the position to steal their tips (which would be illegal).
It doesn't have to be that way, of course. History has shown that a sensitive response from consumers has results. Take, for example, Instacart. The company became ashamed earlier this year – roughly when DoorDash got hot – to change its own shitty pay model in response to both the workers 'and consumers' setbacks.
Short of the answer, the best thing you can do for DoorDash workers is to tip cash . Dashers will appreciate it, and DoorDash will have to pay their workers what they have actually earned.
