DoorDash will give supply employees the choice to be paid a assured hourly minimal fee as a substitute of being paid per supply, the corporate stated Wednesday. The brand new possibility, a novelty within the gig employee business, comes as DoorDash and different app-based gig corporations like Lyft and Uber must present New York Metropolis supply employees with a assured minimal wage of $18 per hour.

Whereas DoorDash has positioned this new providing as a method to preserve flexibility whereas additionally selling dependable earnings, the hourly fee isn’t actually an hourly fee. It’s primarily based on the time spent on a supply, “from the second [a worker accepts] a suggestion till it’s dropped off — plus 100% of suggestions,” in line with the corporate.

“We all know there are Dashers who prioritize reliability of their earnings, who merely wish to get on the street and sprint with an actual, upfront thought of how a lot they’ll earn for the time it takes to finish an order,” reads a weblog put up from DoorDash. “Earn by Time was developed exactly with these Dashers in thoughts.”

Labor rights activists and gig employees have traditionally criticized DoorDash and different corporations for under paying employees for time spent on a gig, or “energetic time,” as a result of that doesn’t account for time spent ready for an order to return by. The NYC mandate requires corporations to pay employees for the entire time they spend linked to the app.

It’s not clear how a lot DoorDash will supply its Dashers (the time period the corporate makes use of to explain its supply employees) as an hourly minimal fee, and the corporate didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch’s request for remark.

DoorDash has been testing this hourly pay mannequin in some small to mid-size cities throughout the U.S. Some gig employees are calling it a “watered down model of Prop 22 with restrictions” and accusing DoorDash of trying to make use of the bait of hourly pay to incentivize employees to simply accept much less fascinating orders that they’d usually reject for the low base pay.

Proposition 22 was a poll initiative in California that handed in 2020, and upheld in appeals court docket in March 2023, and permits corporations like DoorDash to proceed classifying its employees as impartial contractors, fairly than staff.

The assured hourly fee will likely be proven to Dashers firstly of a visit, so that they’ll be capable to see precisely how a lot they’ll earn per hour on supply. DoorDash stated it “invested considerably” to create a “rewarding, beneficial possibility for these Dashers who prioritize consistency when dashing.” In different phrases, Dashers who settle for extra orders will seemingly see a better hourly fee than those that don’t. DoorDash, Uber and different gig corporations are well-known for rewarding employees who settle for journeys persistently, and so they have been accused of punishing employees who don’t.

The standard choice to earn per supply remains to be accessible to Dashers, whereby the upfront assured minimal quantity that they’ll anticipate to earn on that journey will likely be proven earlier than accepting.

DoorDash didn’t say wherein states and markets the “earn by time” supply will likely be accessible.

Alongside the hourly wage announcement, DoorDash included the launch of some new options designed to assist Dashers maximize their earnings. For instance, “sprint alongside the way in which” permits employees to pick the place they wish to begin fulfilling orders — maybe alongside their common commute — to allow them to obtain orders in these places.

DoorDash additionally launched post-checkout tipping, in order that clients can add a tip or add to an current one as much as 30 days after a supply. Often, clients tip at checkout, however this feature offers Dashers the possibility to earn just a little extra for a job effectively completed.

To provide Dashers peace of thoughts, DoorDash additionally launched a location sharing function, which lets employees share their location with as much as 5 contacts.

As a ultimate bone thrown to gig employees, DoorDash stated it’s giving a one-time present of $10,000 to Dashers who joined the platform within the early years, have accomplished greater than 10,000 deliveries and are nonetheless energetic on the platform at the moment. The corporate didn’t say what number of Dashers that really quantities to.