DoorDash continues to flout state labor laws by misclassifying its drivers, called “dashers”, subjecting them to low wages and lack of benefits, according to a class action lawsuit.
The company is accused of enriching itself on the backs of its drivers, who receive low pay and no benefits as independent contractors. Allegedly, 97.5 percent of DoorDash’s workforce consists of independent contractors who are denied protections under federal and state labor laws.
“Companies like DoorDash were never supposed to be allowed to run an entire business on the backs of independent contractors,” asserts the lawsuit. “People who work in the company’s core line of business are its ‘employees.’”
The plaintiffs say that DoorDash continues to willfully misclassify its drivers as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits or a minimum wage, but treats them like employees.
“Even though federal, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts law require DoorDash drivers to be classified as ‘employees’ and receive the rights and protections employees get, DoorDash continues to willfully misclassify them as independent contractors, to reap the benefit of their work and maximize its profit,” asserts the class action lawsuit.
The lead plaintiffs say they have all worked as dashers and had similar experiences with the company. They say that they have been responsible for paying for the costs associated with making DoorDash deliveries, including gas, insurance, and mileage, despite the company failing to pay them the federal minimum wage for their work.
Despite the low pay and contractor status, dashers must follow detailed instructions when they begin their DoorDash shift. Failure to follow “precise instructions” can result in termination of their position.
A typical shift begins when the dasher clicks a button on the DoorDash app in order to be assigned orders for delivery, according to the lawsuit. Dasher’s tasks include driving to the assigned restaurant, notifying DoorDash that they have arrived, and picking up or waiting for the food order.
The plaintiffs say an assigned credit card, the Red Card, must be used to pay for the food. Then dashers must drive to the customer’s location, park, follow specific delivery options, and notify DoorDash when the delivery is complete.
According to the class action lawsuit, dashers are evaluated based on a series of factors, including “On Time” delivery, customer ratings, completion rates, and acceptance rates. Plaintiffs say delivery times are tight and do not take into account delays at the restaurant or even with the DoorDash app itself.
In addition, dashers are allegedly penalized for trying to take only high paying or low distance orders, potentially facing deactivation of their account for failing to take on more assignments.
“Dashers with low metrics are terminated,” says the lawsuit. “For example, DoorDash bans drivers from the Dasher App if the driver’s Average Customer Rating falls below 4.2 stars.”
Further, a dasher’s metrics can allegedly affect the quality of deliveries they are assigned along with their pay.
Dashers and DoorDash customers alike are duped by the company’s policy on tips, as well, claim the plaintiffs. Customers may think they are leaving their dasher a tip on top of the fee the driver is paid by DoorDash; however, prior to 2019, dashers received either the guaranteed amount DoorDash would pay for the order or the customer tip – not both.
The plaintiffs seek to represent DoorDash dashers in California, Illinois, and Massachusetts who have not signed the company’s arbitration clause.
Have you worked as a DoorDash dasher? We want to hear about your experience. Tell us in the comment section below!
The lead plaintiffs are represented by Jahan Sagafi, Relic Sun, and Molly Frandsen of Outten & Golden LLP and Steven M. Tindall, Aaron Blumenthal, and Nikul Shah of Gibbs Law Group LLP.
The DoorDash Dasher Class Action Lawsuit is Clifford L., et al. v. DoorDash Inc., Case No. 20-cv-00666, in the U.S District Court Northern District of California.
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641 thoughts onDoorDash Class Action Lawsuit Alleges That Drivers Are Paid ‘Substandard Wages’
I’ve been doing dd for a little over three years, and yes, they do make me feel like I’m an employee who has to maintain a certain level in our ratings order or risk deactivation. They also don’t give any real benefits to us driver’s so it’s almost impossible to maintain our vehicle’s. As for adjustment pay it seems low? I conclude by saying I feel like they are getting over on us driver’s with lack of pay.
I started with DoorDash on December 05, 2022, I stopped dashing sometime in April 2023 due to vehicle issues and started dashing again in September 2024, using the same account and yes, dealing with the same mess that DoorDash dishes out. I have had DoorDash steal money off my Dasher Direct card by making it appear that Shell Gas Co. was double charging me every time I purchased something at Shell. I raised so much hell with DoorDash about this issue that DoorDash posted a link at the top of dashers apps stating that Shell Gas Co. was being investigated for double charging dashers via their Dasher Direct cards. This happened to me time and time again in the amount of $25.00-$30.00 or more. I contacted Shell, which I knew it wasn’t Shell doing it because of how it did happen and the amount of time the charge would appear again as though payment had just been processed and was pending, but the charge was already sitting in completed transactions. DoorDash gets away with robbing dashers of their money by trying to confuse them. They have kept many tips from me as a Dasher and kept them for themselves, I have been bombarded with deliveries many times over, so that you can’t see your total balance of current and completed dashes and you know without the shadow of a doubt that your money isn’t right when you finally see the total. I have done the math after dashes, writing things down and it never once added up. They also claim that if you are sent to a restaurant for a pickup and the restaurant is closed, DoorDash pays you for half of the orders pay, well you actually do see the half pay on your Dasher direct app, but when you calculate your earnings or finish your dash, you will be short on money exactly the dollar amount that they supposedly sent you for half pay, even several times throughout your dash, your money will be short because they do not pay you the half pay they claim to pay you. DoorDash is also lowering our customer ratings themselves, it is NOT the customers ratings that are revealed. If you pause your dash to get fuel or for any reason whatsoever, you see your ratings fall, if you don’t dash, your ratings fall, if you contact doordash on their discrepancies, your ratings fall and I’m talking tremendously. I have sat and WATCHED my numbers change by 4 and 5 digits at a time. Recently, I started dashing again and I know to take screenshots of everything and watch my ratings. We’ll I happened to notice after several days of my delivery count going nowhere, that no matter how many deliveries I made, the number wasn’t increasing. After several more days, I noticed the number would increase barely but then later, the number of deliveries had dropped 6 digits or more. I contacted DoorDash on this and have screenshots of the chats, they informed me that my delivery count on the app was correct and advised me to continue delivering to raise the number. I informed them that my count was incorrect, told them what it should be and told them I had screenshots of the delivery count before they dropped it. Nothing changed and nothing was done about it, I continued to dash and I can’t tell you how many dashes I had to actually complete before the app finally read 100 deliveries, within a 30 day period, and I finally got to Platinum status where I could dash now any time. We’ll that lasted all of one night of dashing because doordash changed my status back to Gold status with only 80 deliveries, which has been dropped to 74 as of today. I contacted them on it via chat, yes, screenshot evidence, in which I was given two very different reasons as to why my account status changed. First, the person told me that the app refreshes on the 4th of wvery month and that my app should refresh and reflect my Platinum status again, the date of this conversation was taking place on October 01, 2024. The second person told me that I only had 80 deliveries for the past 30 days and that’s why my status changed back to Gold status. I have many screenshots of this entire ordeal. I was also assured that my status would go back to Platinum, the last person said within 24 hours, it has been days and my account status is still Gold with only 74 deliveries and my numbers on ratings are dropping. I attempted to schedule a dash today, for less than 1 hour is all I could schedule and I did not receive even one order for my time and gas or anything else. I am sick of DoorDash and I’m sick of being robbed and wronged by these sorry ass, good for nothing, pieces of trash that sit back and play with pepples livelihood and lives even. I have been so destrought by DoorDash, mentally, emotionally and physically it is a shame. There are many many days I would literally dash from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. or later and never reach $100.00 I have been very seriously wronged by this garbage company and I am sick to death of it. I would love for someone to take on my case and help me with these sorry individuals.
California dasher. How am I an independent contractor if doordash is making us schedule time to deliver? Plus they hired on so many new dashers I can never get any time scheduled. 30 seconds after 3pm it says all time slots are taken. They took away my option to work when I wanted to when they switched to the tier program. And it seems like only us dashers who have been working for years can’t get time slots. I’ve dashed the same times almost every day and holiday for 2 1/2 years. Now it’s days before I get any time slot to work. Never had this problem when it was the top dasher platform. They purposely hired on all these immigrants who can’t even speak English cause doordash knew they wouldn’t turn down any order. They are sharing accounts, the are using app bots. And I always see one with the phone picking up orders and the other one is driving. They switch cause I see the other person come in with the same phone. I’m 59 years old. I’m by myself. This is my only income. Now I cant even get the chance to work. My income is steadily decreasing. I don’t know how im going to survive much longer.