Seattle pays $534,000 for gig workers protected under law

Seattle's app-based delivery drivers have no break room, no posted labor notices, no HR department. Two community organizations are now spending $534,000 over two years to find those workers where they are and tell them what the city's labor laws guarantee.

The Office of Labor Standards announced Wednesday, Aug. 5 that it awarded 24-month contracts to the Fair Work Center Collaborative and Growing Contigo to conduct outreach, education and complaint intake for gig workers covered by Seattle's PayUp minimum-payment ordinance and its deactivation-rights law. The contracts run from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2028.

The money comes from Seattle's Network Company Licensing Fee, paid by DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart. The platforms themselves are financing the effort to educate workers about rights those platforms must honor.

Who the money will reach

Fair Work Center Collaborative, led by Executive Director Danielle Alvarado, will focus on new immigrants, Somali and East African immigrants, Black workers, Muslim workers, LGBTQ+ workers, disabled workers, undocumented workers and Latino workers. Its partners include Somali Community Services of Seattle and Al Noor Islamic Center.

Growing Contigo will serve Latino, immigrant, refugee and BIPOC workers, with emphasis on Spanish-speaking communities. CEO José Manuel Vasquez was born in Mexico and raised in South Seattle. He spent a decade leading nonprofits through the Latino Community Fund of Washington State before founding the bilingual consulting firm in 2022.

Both organizations will provide Know Your Rights trainings, complaint counseling and referrals in workers' home languages.

What the law guarantees

Seattle's PayUp ordinance, in effect since January 2024, sets minimum per-offer compensation for delivery workers. The 2026 rates are $0.47 per minute and $0.80 per mile.

A separate deactivation-rights ordinance requires platforms with 250 or more gig workers to give notice and a challenge process before cutting a driver off the app.

Those protections have teeth. In August 2025, Uber Eats agreed to pay $15.5 million to more than 16,000 Seattle delivery workers in a record settlement over alleged violations. In a more recent enforcement action, OLS forced Uber Eats to reinstate a deactivated worker and pay $1,278 in penalties and fines after finding the company failed to follow the required process.

Why workers don't know

OLS Director Steven Marchese said the dispersed nature of gig work requires trusted community partners to reach workers directly. "App-based work is not done in traditional workplaces," Marchese said Wednesday. "Now more than ever, workers need organizations like the ones selected here to meet them where they are and provide the resources they need to be successful."

A city report released in April 2026 found PayUp covered roughly 92,000 workers and 15 million delivery offers across five platforms during its first 18 months, according to GeekWire. Workers earned more and order volume grew. DoorDash disputed the findings, saying its Seattle drivers earned more than 20% less per hour in 2024 than in 2023.

This is the city's first dedicated outreach fund for app-based workers. The contracts were awarded through a competitive selection process.