An Open Letter from Tech Workers to DoorDash
(Tech workers, fill out this form to add your name. Supportive drivers and others, please sign here.)
$7 billion food delivery startup DoorDash is taking pay from people making close to minimum wage.
The way it works: DoorDash guarantees drivers a minimum payment for each delivery, but use tips to fulfill that minimum. If a user tips more, it doesn’t mean the worker gets paid more. DoorDash just pays less. The driver often won’t benefit from the tip at all, but can’t tell — DoorDash doesn’t disclose how much a user tipped on a given job.
From DoorDash FAQ:
For each delivery, you will always receive at least $1 from DoorDash plus 100% of the customer tip. Where that sum is less than the guaranteed amount, DoorDash will provide a pay boost to make sure you receive the guaranteed amount. Where that sum is more than the guaranteed amount, you pocket the extra amount.
Grocery delivery company Instacart, when recently exposed for similar pay practices, relented and updated their policies. However, DoorDash has doubled down. In a recent interview, CEO Tony Xu claimed that “in no way does DoorDash benefit economically from this model.” That’s a blatant lie when every dollar tipped means DoorDash makes more money, not drivers.
Last week, DoorDash closed another $400 million round of funding. Silicon Valley investors clearly don’t care that DoorDash cheats drivers — in fact, DoorDash is likely being rewarded for adopting practices that improve their profit margins and treats drivers unfairly.
However, investors do care that their startups can hire the best tech talent to help them execute on their mission.
We, current and future tech workers, have a message for DoorDash execs and investors: we will not work for you until you fix your pay practices.
This means you must:
- Set a pay floor of $15 for every active hour with an active job, after accounting for expenses like mileage and extra payroll taxes paid by contractors.
- Award user tips on top of pay — not deducted from it.
- Provide drivers more transparency, including a detailed breakdown of pay.
We see you, DoorDash, and we will not be quiet until you give your workers the respect and compensation they deserve.
(Tech workers, fill out this form to add your name. Supportive drivers and others, please sign here.)
Signed,
Anna Geiduschek, Software Engineer, Dropbox
Kelsey James, Web Developer
Jonathan Reasor, Frontend Developer
Kristen Sheets, Student, Brandeis University 2020
Julio A Rios, Manufacturing Engineer, HPE
Meredith Whittaker, Researcher, Google
Sana Altaf, Innovation Designer
Alexander Mancevice, Software Engineer, CargoMetrics
Amr Gaber, Software Engineer, Google
Jeffrey Atkinson, Product Manager
Curtis Steckel, Software Engineer
Stephanie Parker, Policy, YouTube
Mark Dudley, Software Engineer, Google
Ari Laurel, Employee
Ben Packer, Software Engineer
Lily Ng, Student, Brandeis University / MS
Joshua Essex, CTO
Julia Dressel, Software Engineer, Recidiviz
Zade Gueble, Software Development Engineer, Axiom Law
Alden Mitchell, Product Manager
Carey Phelps, Machine Learning PM, Weights & Biases, Stanford 2015
Adina Shanholtz, SDE
Ranjan Pradeep, Software Engineer, Microsoft
Jason Prado, Software Engineer
Jordan Kessler, Recruiter
Matthew Watson, Software Engineer, Google
Laura Hunter, Software engineer , Collective Health
Andrew Schwartzmeyer, Software Engineer, Microsoft
Lucy Tobias, Recruiting
Marie Collins, Business Analyst, Google Inc.
Jess Peterson, Director of Planning , Stanford 2015 MSCS
David Wang, Software Engineer
Edward Grystar, Software Engineer
Jasper Dean, Data Analyst, Twitter
Annelise Smith, User Studies Program Coordinator, Facebook Reality Labs via Filter
Nisha Pillai, Software Engineer
Benjamin Isaacs, Engineering Manager
Xavid Pretzer, Staff Software Engineer, Google
Kat Aleksandrova, Software Engineering Manager, Linqia
Andy Liu, Sourcing Specialist
Nick Isaacs, Software Engineer, Google
Mathew Antony, Product Operations Manager
Alex Rubin, Engineer
Conor Woods, Product Manager
Matthew Hiller, Software Engineer, Dropbox
Rory MacQueen, Software Engineer
Anastasia Clegg, QA Engineer, Dropbox
Sasha Perigo, Data Scientist
David Thorman, Software Engineer
Ann Kidder, Product Manager
Daniel Jackoway, Software Engineer
Yasmine Mortazavi, Software Engineer, Zillow Group
Jimmy Wu, Software Engineer
Steven Koppelman, SRE
Logan LaHive, Entrepreneur, Cal Poly 2005
Roee Landesman, Student — Computer Engineering, Cal Poly SLO 2020
Ralph Cutler, Digital Designer & Co Founder, CoLab Cooperative
Jaigene Kang, DevOps Engineer
Jack Poulson, Research Engineer
Kelly Carter, Senior Software Engineer
Angelica Cupat, Experience Designer, NewDealDesign
Roger LeMesurier, Mechanical Engineer , XStream Trucking
Nicholas Gibian, Data Analyst, Twitter
Jonathan Leavitt, Product Manager
Maria C Sumner, Technical Program Manager, Facebook
Matthew Stephens, Mechanical Engineer, Intuitive Surgical
Cara Esten Hurtle, Senior Android Engineer, Slack
David Bloom, Software Engineer, Apple
Chris Thoma, Software Engineer
Becky Liang, Student, 2021
Diego Balvin, Student, 2021
Aparna Dhinakaran, Software Engineer, Uber, Cornell University
Jeff May, Software Engineer, Rally Health
Danny Olson, Software Engineer, Jyve
Praveen Sinha, CTO, Equality Labs
Kelvin Lu, Software Engineer, Square
Steven Goldberg, Software Engineer
Danny Spitzberg, User Researcher, CoLab.coop
Joss Geiduschek, Engineering Program Manager
Matthew Pancia, Data Scientist
Peter Ciccolo, Software Engineer, Fingo Inc.
Dave Craige, Founder, The Studio
Haley Bash, Software Engineer
Alejandro CG, IT Infrastructure Engineer
Zachary Salmon, Tech Lead
Kevin Huang, Senior Data Analyst, New Relic
Jauzey Imam, Software Engineer
Kappi Patterson, Software Engineer, Google
Zoe Mansfield, Student, Junior
Morgan green, Sound Design ( Game Dev)
Jerry Clausen, AV Technician
Veronica Wharton, Software Engineer
Isabel Lee, Product Designer
Izaak Meckler, Cryptographer and CTO, O(1) Labs
Sam King, Engineering Manager
Tatiana Ensslin, Software Engineer, Trulia
Syed Munawwer, Student, 2020
Keziah Plattner, Software Engineer, Airbnb
Chris Arvin, Product Designer, Remix
Benaiah Mischenko, Developer, Netlify
Jamie Chong, Software Engineer
Jasmine Sun, Student, Stanford 2021
Deanna Bjorkquist, Security Program Manager, Airbnb, UC Santa Cruz 2011
Brett Jones, Software Developer
Mariana Martínez Alvarado, Service Designer
Jackson Flint-Gonzales, Software Engineer
Jahed Momand, Product Manager
Luke Kopakowski, Software Engineer
Angus L Fletcher, Software Developet
Luke Stark, Postdoctoral Researcher, Microsoft Research Montreal
Ashton Albertson, Software Developer
Tom Renn, Software Engineer, Google
Adam Trimble, Tech Director, Amp Agency
Juliana Almeida, Content Specialist
Erik Hetzner, Software Engineer
Tabitha Rohrer, Technical Writer, Formlabs
Justin W. Friedman, Sr. Software Engineer
Max Kaehn, Software Engineer, Google
Andrew M Potter, Software Engineer
Nathan Sears, Software Engineer, Amazon
Ian Reynolds, Software Engineer, MIT Knowledge Futures Group
Freddy Martinez, DevOps Engineer
Ben Cunningham, Software Engineer
Tessa Nordgren, DevOps Engineer
Benjamin Hergert, Software Developer
Hunter Tammaro, Scrum Master, Excella
Alex Worrad-Andrews, Contract Lead Software Engineer
Justin Hillsmith, Professional Services Engineer, Forcepoint
Molly Trombley-McCann, Software Engineer, Pivotal Software
Brian Ostrander, Game Developer / Software Engineer
Noah Berman, Backend Developer, WeTransfer
Daniel Fosco, Product Designer, Booking.com
Skyler Schain, UX Designer, Google
Sean O’Donohue, Developer, Detroit Labs
Ross Patton, Software Engineer
Kevin Pujanauski, Head of Product
Will Toms, Agile IT Portfolio Manager, University of Michigan
Michael Lee Williams, Software Engineer, Cloudera
Liz O’Sullivan, Management
Alison Chevalier, Designer, Flax & Stone
Sam Kern, Software Engineer, Google
RJ Mey, Web Developer
Steve Barman, Software Engineer
Adam Egelman, UX Designer
Chris Trevarthen, Software Engineer
Nathan Rosquist, Artist & Web Dev
William Do, Applications Developer
Sarah Quartey, Program Manager, Google
Matt Lane, Co-Founder / Lead Instructor, Rithm School
Alex Birdsall, Software Engineer
Jeff Hodges, Software Engineer, Darkish Green
Long Ouyang, Research Scientist
Aaron M Sarazan, CTO, Stencil Ltd
Sathvik Nair, Student, UC Berkeley / 3rd Year Undergraduate
Bruce Hahne, Project Manager, Google
Filip Skrzesinski, Product Designer
Stoddard Meigs, Member Experience
Bryan Hughes, Developer Advocate, Microsoft
Elias Ponvert, Data Scientist, Indeed
Nicholas Fowler, Software Engineer, Adobe
Robert Long, Software Engineer
Roee Avnon, Software Engineer, Airbnb
Colin Murphy, Software Engineer
Derek Boiko-Weyrauch, Software Engineer, Sportradar US
Peter Johnston, Software Engineer, Pilot
Melissa Luberti, Software Developer
Omayeli, Software Engineer, Linkedin
James DiGioia, Front-End Engineer
Sean Eckard, Sales Engineer, Starship Technologies, U.C. Berkeley 2008
Martin Baker, Software Engineer
Tuhina Das, University Recruiter, Airbnb
Matthew Valentine, Software Engineer, Dropbox
Nat Roth, Software Engineer , Microsoft
Aaron L’Heureux, Software Engineer
David Aeschlimann, Software Engineer
Anna Wolak, Software Engineer
Ali Glenesk, Software Engineer
Eric Wolak, Software Engineer
Graham Roth, Product Manager
Evan Owski, Software Engineer
Sam Stafford, Software Engineer, Dropbox
Gareth Chen, Software Engineer, Facebook
Rosette Diaz, Software Engineer
Sophie Helf, Software Engineer
Jan Baykara, Product Designer, Common Knowledge Co-operative
Julia Lunetta, Project Manager
Matt Meshulam, Software Engineer
Rocky Martin, Data Analyst, Criteo
Sam Johnson, Software Engineer
Grant Chinn, UX Designer
Leah Yukelson, Software Engineer
Arjun Bhargava, ML Researcher
Daniel Dyssegaard Kallick, Software Engineer
Giang Nguyen, Software Enginner, Dropbox
Michael Margolis, Engineering Manager
Bonnie Zhou, Software Engineer, Google
Nick Chambers, Software Engineer
Amelia Goodman, Software Engineer
Anvita Achar, Software Engineer
Lily Chen, Software Engineer, Airbnb, Inc.
Tyler Hughes, Software Engineer
Robert Kajic, Software Engineer, Dropbox
Jonathan Boles, Software Engineer
Kate Donahue, Software Engineer, Google
Kaya Deuser, Student, Vassar College 2020
Joshua Gooden, Director of Engineering
Katie Ellman-Aspnes, Student, Vassar 2020
Adriana Buller, Student, Vassar 2021
Justas Rodarte, Student, Vassar College, 2019
Paul Kinsky, Senior Software Engineer
Isaac Elias, VP Engineering
Daniel Feder, Software Engineer, CivicActions
Adam Dworak, Lead Product Designer
Andy Scheff, Software Engineer, Motion
Isaac Csandl, Full stack web developer
Daniel Washburn, Software Developer
Omayeli Arenyeka, Software Engineer, LinkedIn
Tommasina Miller, Software Engineer
Meiri Anto, Software Engineer, Coursera
Andrew Rich, Software Engineer
Annie Zhang, Software Engineer, Facebook
Emily Cain, Security Engineer, New Relic
Alex Stahl, Software Consultant
Michael Chase, Senior Software Engineer, Netflix
William Conlin, Software Developer, Louisiana State University
Cody Leff, Software Engineer
Kevin Liao, Software Engineer, Facebook
Jackson Chen, Student, Columbia University
Kelsey Freese, Software Developer, IBM
Andrew Hughes, B.S. Computer Science Student, Park University, Senior Year
Mauricio Rivera, Student, Columbia University
Colin Young, Software Solutions Architect, Inspire11
Alison Chan, Software Developer, Detroit Labs
Hannah Keal, People & Culture Partner working with Tech startups, Unleashed.Company
Daniel Silverman, Software Engineer, Oracle
Sarah Tappon, Software Engineer, Dropbox
Susan Tan, Senior Fullstack Software Engineer
Brenda Deely, Software Engineer, bepress | Elsevier
Eldan Goldenberg, GIS Developer
Christopher Yee Mon, Software Engineer, Former DoorDash Driver
Supported by:
Ashley Johnson (DoorDash driver)
Luke Waring
Wendy Liu
Sarah Meyers
Shelley Handler
Laura Woodry
Shannen Torres
Noah Toyonaga
Nicholas Graeve
Cameron Anderson
Alexander Novosad
Trent Matthew Neal
Taran Ouellette
Karen Liou
Karl Schulz
Sebastian Thomas Stoddart
Raymond Plouhar
Sebastian Motley
Brandon Zamora
Eponine Black (DoorDash driver)
Ryan Oleary (DoorDash driver)
Maddie Lewis
Dexter Calkins (DoorDash driver)
Jakob Ross
Theo Fuerst
Jay Stokes (DoorDash driver)
Trevor Berridge (DoorDash driver)
Rebecca Senn (DoorDash driver)
Zoe Mansfield
Markaus Willis
Charles P Bogen (DoorDash driver)
Dakota Giacalone (DoorDash driver)
Leon Wong
Miah Johnson
Dominick Signoretto (DoorDash driver)
Tucker Clemensen
Caitlin Gray
J Huston
Freddie Martignetti
Giovanni Ferron
Brian C Lord (DoorDash driver)
Gregory Bauer (DoorDash driver)
Seth Goldstein
Tommy Castellucci
Daphne Smith (DoorDash driver)
Lori Wilder
Tara Taylor
Hank Kennedy
Beth Harvey
Cheryl Anne Ruebner (DoorDash driver)
Patrick Mahoney (DoorDash driver)
Mohammed Sarker
Allison Stafford
Jeremy David Rogers (DoorDash driver)
LeShonda Skinner (DoorDash driver)
Michael Crowe
Mike Prusek (DoorDash driver)
Jasmine Lomax
Lika Smith
Bruce McFarland
Eyob Tsegaye
Christine Beal (DoorDash driver)
Karen Taylor
John Adams
Laura Felice
Kathryn Wiktorski
Theresa Herstad
Nek (DoorDash driver)
Tom DNetto
Violeta Moreno (DoorDash driver)
Zachary Yanof (DoorDash driver)
Dylan Avery (DoorDash driver)
S A Millen (DoorDash driver)
Christopher Dempster (DoorDash driver)
Sharolene Dempster (DoorDash driver)
Franco Wong
Charles Livengood (DoorDash driver)
Ctarik Curry (DoorDash driver)
Katrina Bolinder
Yongchang Wu (DoorDash driver)
