Former Bridges Center Research Assistant Anita Zeng collaborated with the Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) in 2023 on a project related to the App-Based Workers Minimum Pay Ordinance. The City of Seattle OLS is an agency within the city government that advocates for the rights of all workers through policy development, labor standards investigation and enforcement, and community outreach and education. In 2022 and 2023, the City of Seattle passed several ordinances related to the working conditions of app-based workers. This included the App-Based Workers Minimum Pay Ordinance, passed in May 2022. The ordinance establishes a minimum wage based on the time and mileage associated with orders through app-based companies in Seattle, including DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats. One section of the ordinance establishes the authority of OLS to request aggregated and disaggregated data from the companies overseeing the apps that contract workers to increase transparency. Zeng collaborated with policy analysts at OLS to support the process of drafting data requests.

Read more of Anita Zeng's Research Update on Examining the App-Based Workers Minimum Pay Ordinance

However, after the ordinance went into effect in January 2024, some of the biggest app companies in Seattle, including DoorDash and Uber Eats, quickly responded by raising consumer fees, including a five-dollar Seattle-specific fee, claiming the fees were now a necessary cost of doing business in the city. In collaboration with the UW School of Information, the Fair Work Center, and Working Washington, the Bridges Center applied research team launched three surveys targeted towards app-based workers, consumers, and businesses to better understand the App-Based Worker Minimum Pay Ordinance’s effect on these stakeholders. Initial surveying indicated the need for additional outreach to app-based workers.

The Seattle Office of Labor Standards published its first App-Based Worker data report in April 2026. This report is the first to use comprehensive data sets directly submitted by the network companies, including all covered workers and offers.

This report is based on the analysis of data submitted by the five largest network companies, covering the period from January 15, 2024 to June 29, 2025, the first 18 months after the App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance (SMC 8.37) became effective. These five companies facilitate the vast majority of covered delivery offers in Seattle and include the largest app-based restaurant, grocery/retail, and package delivery network companies operating in the city.

Read the full report from the Seattle OLS here.

Key takeaways of the new App-Based Worker data report:

During the first 18 months of implementation, the ordinance covered 92,801 workers working for the five largest network companies. 

• From Quarter 2 2024 to Quarter 2 2025, the number of unique engaged workers grew slightly by 2.8%.
• More than 85% of the workers only worked on one app. On average, app-based workers worked 12 hours per week per app. 

The number of offers completed by the largest network companies grew by 3.2%.

• When comparing the first half of 2024 to first half of 2025, the number of weekly completed offers increased from 197,148 offers to 203,469 offers per week. 

Average worker pay increased significantly compared to pre-ordinance reports and continued increasing from 2024 to 2025.

• The average network company payment, or “base payment,” per engaged hour was $30.12, after subtracting mileage expenses incurred during actively engaged time.
• The average “pay for time online” – a metric that accounts for additional work time and expenses, including time and expenses while logged on but not actively completing tasks – was $15.98 per hour.
• This represents a significant increase from pre-ordinance levels, which, according to outside analysis, were as low as $3.17 per hour.
• Workers’ pay for time online increased from 2024 to 2025, from $15.29/hour to $16.29/hour during the first half of each year.
• Pay for time online varied substantially based on network company, ranging from $12.09 to $25.37 per hour.

Tips and bonuses made up a much smaller share of earnings than pre-ordinance estimates, indicating that earnings became more predictable and transparent.

• Worker pay was comprised primarily of base payment, rather than tips and bonuses. Greater than 85% of workers’ compensation was base payment, around 14% was from tips, and only about 0.2% was bonuses/incentives from network companies.
• This is a substantial shift from the composition of earnings prior to implementation, when tips were reported to make up as much as 48.8% of earnings.
• When including tips and bonuses, worker earnings averaged $36.36 per engaged hour, and pay for time online was $19.98/hour.

A substantial portion of customer payments were network company fees, and fees increased from 2024 to 2025.

• When paying for orders, nearly 20% of the customer payments were fees paid to network companies. (Network companies have multiple other revenue streams in addition to customer fees, including but not limited to commissions, service fees, and advertising fees paid by third parties such as restaurants, brands, and retailers.)
• When comparing the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2025, there was an increase in the average platform fee percentage from 18.5% to 19.6%.