Tip Sheets
DoorDash settlement highlights need for algorithmic transparency in gig economy
February 25, 2025
Media Contact
Adam Allington
The food delivery app DoorDash will pay almost $17 million to settle claims that it unfairly used customer tips to subsidize the wages of its delivery workers in New York state, rather than letting drivers keep the tips on top of their guaranteed pay, New York AG Letitia James said.
Andrew Wolf
Assistant professor, ILR School
Andrew Wolf, an assistant professor who studies the gig economy at Cornell University’s School of Industrial & Labor Relations, says that while the ruling is good news for gig workers, the door is still wide open for similar infractions to occur.
Wolf says:
“The NYAGs settlement today with DoorDash is the latest example of how gig companies’ failure to be transparent about how their algorithms operate results in wage theft, unpredictability, and shifts all the burdens of gig work on to workers.
“The apps refusal to explain to workers how wages are determined and the apps constant experimentation and unilateral changes in how their algorithms work creates extreme problems for this low wage workforce.
“While the AGs settlement rectified this particular incident without legislative action to regulate algorithmic wage determinations, these incidents of wage theft will persist, and workers will continue to suffer.”
