Over
the summer a New York Times reporter
- Andy Newman - took a job for DoorDash delivering food to explore what life is
like for people in the gig economy.
Among
the things he discovered was the fact that DoorDash steals its employees
tips. There was such an uproar after the
article ran that DoorDash changed their policy to include more transparency. But
they're not the only ones guilty of this practice. (Vincent, 2019)
And,
after a brief flurry of articles in 2018, I don't see anyone talking anymore about
the fact that using Seamless may drive your favorite restaurant out of
business. (Dunn, 2018)
But
back to tipping. Andy reported that for
almost 2/3 of his 43 deliveries he got no tip at all. Wow. I
guess people don't realize that workers are dependent upon those tips to make a
living wage. It's just like in restaurants
where the minimum wage for servers is $2.13 an hour versus $7.25 for non-tipped
positions. They are counting on tips to
make up the difference so they can survive.
The
article went on to say that "People in public housing tipped consistently,
while students at NYU rarely did." (Newman, 2019)
Why do
you think this is? Why do people in
public housing tip consistently? Why
don't NYU students tip? How does this
relate to our discussions about tribes? And
to the happiness studies with regard to giving?
Vincent,
J. (2019, July 22) Delivery apps like
DoorDash are using your tips to pay workers' wages. theverge.com. Retrieved October 2, 2019, from
Dunn,
E. (2018, February 3) How Delivery Apps
May Put Your Favorite Restaurant Out Of Business. newyorker.com. Retrieved October 2, 2019, from
Newman,
A. (2019, July 21) What Our Reporter
Learned Delivering Burritos to New Yorkers.
nytimes.com. Retrieved October 2, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/reader-center/insider-reporter-food-deliveryman.html
