Earning Less: The Harmful Impact of Seattle’s New Pay Law

When the Seattle City Council passed an extreme minimum pay standard for delivery network drivers in 2022, the councilmembers at the time largely ignored the warnings from app-based companies, drivers, and community leaders that their extreme policy proposal — compounded by a series of egregious regulatory actions — would lead to higher costs and fewer orders, among other consequences. While the key proponents of the legislation are no longer on the council, the newest members — many of whom were sworn into office just days before the law took effect — are now seeing the disastrous impact it is having on the city and its residents. 

It has been three months since this harmful law took effect, and we’re seeing that many Seattle shoppers are having difficulty earning income because the law’s negative impacts are having a direct effect on the shopping experience: 

• Shoppers in Seattle are spending more time idle and less time earning. 

• The number of orders available for shoppers to deliver has decreased in Seattle while neighborhoods outside the city, which don’t have the PayUp requirements, are seeing an increase over the same time period. 

• Shopper tips for orders within Seattle have decreased by more than 60% per order.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what we warned the council would happen before they passed this law. As we started to see trends from PayUp take hold, we reached out to shoppers in Seattle to understand just how much this law is affecting them. Hundreds responded to a survey we sent, and here’s what we found¹:

• 72% of surveyed shoppers in Seattle say their experience shopping has gotten worse since PayUp took effect — and among those, an overwhelming majority (71%) say their experience has gotten much worse. 

• 88% of surveyed shoppers are experiencing longer wait times for batches since PayUp took effect — which means they’re spending more time waiting for earnings opportunities and less time actually earning.

• Most surveyed shoppers (56%) say they’ve seen a decrease in earnings, and a staggering 82% have said tips are down since PayUp took effect. 

The voices behind these numbers are just as alarming. 

Marvelous J, a Seattle shopper, shared: “I like shopping with Instacart because I have the freedom and flexibility to do whatever I need to do, I can just close the app and do what I want to do. Since PayUp, it’s been really frustrating to have these new limitations while shopping and delivering in Seattle. These forced requirements have changed the way I live.”

Instacart remains committed to delivering the best customer and shopper experience in Seattle. We know the current City Council is working hard to better understand the impacts harmful laws and the damage other excessive regulatory actions can have on app-based workers, customers, and retailers across Seattle. We hope this new city council will listen to the voices of workers to inform their next steps. Instacart stands ready to help build a sustainable policy that works for all Seattle stakeholders.

¹ Results based on responses from more than 250 shoppers to an emailed survey in February 2024.

Instacart

Author

Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.