Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ejstronge 928 days ago
They used tips (and may still use tips) to refund themselves for the minimum pay offered to dashers.

The language was very deceptive, as giving a tip did not always increase the amount of money received by a dasher.

3 comments

I thought they got the tip if they got more than the minimum pay in tips.

Otherwise, DD used the tip to pay them.

Meaning - if you somehow work one job and it takes an entire hour - and you got a $10 tip - you would only make $29, not $29 + $10x1 = $39.

If you worked 1 hour and did 5 jobs - each with $10 tips - you would get paid $50 - not $29 + $10x5 = $79.

There was a lot of backlash when it was revealed DoorDash was taking tips like the method you stated. Now they give the entire tip to the driver regardless of minimum pay.

OP was making a joke that no, it's not "as always" because there wqs a pretty large scandal just a few years ago centered around DoorDash not paying 100% of tips.

so my understanding is: don't tip on doordash after this. This means that the actual cost will be included in the work. I'm all for it. I hate tips, it is arbitrary and terrible.
Can’t beat cash for appreciation money.
> They used tips (and may still use tips) to refund themselves for the minimum pay offered to dashers.

Not trying to make a stance one way or another, just wanted to make sure I understand what you meant by this correctly.

Is what you are describing essentially the same way it works in the restaurant industry for waiters/servers?

TLDR: waiters/servers in the US typically have a base pay that’s below the minimum wage, but they get to keep all the tips. However, if a waiter/server at the end of their pay period makes less with their base pay+tips than what the minimum wage for the area would be, the employer is legally on the hook for making up the difference to the employee.

It would seem to be the same - but also restaurant workers likely don’t hit the minimums frequently, since the kitchen would probably be unprofitable to run in settings where front of house are only making $3/hr.
> TLDR: waiters/servers typically have a base pay that’s below the minimum wage, but they get to keep all the tips. However, if a waiter/server at the end of their pay period makes less with their base pay+tips than what the minimum wage for the area would be, the employer is legally on the hook for making up the difference to the employee.

I believe that's the federal rule, but several states with higher than federal minimum wages have a uniform minimum wage for tipped and non-tipped workers. If I'm reading the chart correctly[1], those states/territories include Alaska, California, Guam, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

[1] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped