A Seattle City ordinance helped increase the wages of app-based gig workers for the first few months it went into effect, but now the workers are facing a staggering halt to their earnings.
The ordinance, which went into effect in 2024, increased gig workers’ minimum wage payment and compensation for time spent in traffic and distance traveled. Workers saw a rise in pay for the first few months but they soon saw a steep decline in their wages when customers were faced with increased fees, according to KUOW NPR.
Michael Lowe, a DoorDash worker, was paid $58 for two deliveries that took an hour to complete due to traffic, and said he would have been paid $17 for those same orders before the ordinance, the outlet reported. Lowe said customer orders began to slow after a few months, leading some workers to be logged on for hours without seeing a single order come through.
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Uttam Mukherjee, a co-owner of an Indian restaurant in Seattle, estimated his business declined nearly 50% as a result of the ordinance, causing new fees to be added to delivery orders, according to KUOW NPR. Mukherjee said the new fees would raise the price of a $12-15 meal at his restaurant to $35-40 when ordering through an app like DoorDash.
DoorDash published a report tracking order sales from January 2023 to January 2025 across Denver, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco. The report claimed monthly order sales per store increased 20% in Denver, 40% in Portland, and 30% San Francisco, but only 5% in Seattle.
The DoorDash report said Seattle customers paid 3.5 times the average order fee compared to customers across Denver, San Francisco, and Portland.
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The Intentionalist, a Seattle-based guide to small businesses, conducted a survey in late 2025 that showed a wide range of local businesses struggled financially more than they did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 71.4% of surveyed businesses said foot traffic is down from the previous year, 63% reported a decline in business, and around 80% have annual revenue under $1 million, according to the survey.
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