[JumpCrisscross]

> I’d rather pick it up myself than keep pretending cheap delivery was ever anything but exploitation

Then tip! The delivery driver can do more with that, plus OP's business, than with just your business and well wishes.

[polygloty]

Tipping should never be expected and be part of the base salary

[JumpCrisscross]

> Tipping should never be expected and be part of the base salary

I agree. Here, the choice is between tipping and rendering that person unemployed (or underemployed) because of projected morality. I'm arguing that it's better for the people one purports to help to hand over a tip and not support reducing their work, or worse, to advocate that others not use their services.

[CSSer]

No! It is the company’s job to price their service to cover costs. I get to decide if I pay. Tipping does not make exploitation any less real. Of course I tip when necessary. That's besides the point.

[JumpCrisscross]

> It is the company’s job to price their service to cover costs

They did. They made money. The delivery staff made money--OP is quoting the real, lived experience of actual gig workers. The government came in and decided that was unsavory, and so now those staff are making less (not counting the ones now unemployed).

> it is better to avoid them altogether imo

Not for the delivery driver!

[Yeul]

There is always someone willing to work for a dollar. That doesn't mean we should abolish the minimum wage to exploit desperation.

Gig workers are just bullshit countries invented to hide unemployment. They don't ad anything to the economy. Nobody is buying a house or starting a family as a Uber delivery driver.

[JumpCrisscross]

> doesn't mean we should abolish the minimum wage to exploit desperation

I agree. If all the city had done was raise the minimum wage (and make it applicable to these workers), that would have been fine. They didn't. They added a targeted tax.

> Nobody is buying a house or starting a family as a Uber delivery driver

Not in Seattle, but objectively untrue across the country. But also, I don't think it's fair to say we should render unemployed everyone who has a job that they can't start a family or buy a house on.

[kasey_junk]

Was anyone buying a house or starting a family delivering pizza for dominoes as an employee?

[tptacek]

Or, for that matter... as taxi drivers?