More than 14,000 Uber Eats delivery drivers in Seattle will split nearly $4.4 million after the city found the company repeatedly failed to pay them for cancelled orders.

Mayor Katie B. Wilson announced Tuesday, Aug. 18, that the Seattle Office of Labor Standards reached a $4,386,682.28 settlement with Portier, LLC, doing business as Uber Eats. The agency called it the second-largest enforcement action in its history.

Uber Eats did not consistently pay drivers the minimum required when orders were cancelled for reasons beyond the worker's control, including when a driver had already traveled to a pickup location. In some cases, the company also failed to meet minimum payment requirements for time worked inside Seattle city limits.

The settlement covers 14,421 affected workers out of approximately 35,000 who drive for Uber Eats in Seattle. It includes back pay, interest, liquidated damages and civil penalties. The city also collected $5,982.90 in fines.

Second strike in 13 months

This is the second time OLS has hit Uber Eats with a multimillion-dollar settlement since Seattle's App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance took effect in January 2024. The first, reached in July 2025, totaled $15 million and covered more than 16,000 workers. Combined, the two actions have returned roughly $19.4 million to Seattle gig workers from a single company.

OLS Director Steven Marchese said the new case grew directly from the first. After the 2025 settlement required Uber Eats to pay $1.4 million to more than 4,000 workers for cancelled-order violations, drivers kept contacting OLS to report the same problem.

"The law is clear. Uber Eats should have paid workers the money it owed them because of cancelled orders, as well as when some of the work occurred inside Seattle," Marchese said. "We want to send a clear message to all network companies operating in Seattle, including Uber Eats, that we will enforce the law to ensure workers receive every dollar they've earned."

What it means for local restaurants

The enforcement regime has a flip side for neighborhood businesses. Uttam Mukherjee, co-owner of Spice Waala, which serves Indian street food in Ballard, Capitol Hill and Columbia City, told KUOW in February 2026 that his delivery orders dropped an estimated 50% after the ordinance took effect because apps passed costs to customers. "A meal might be $12 or $15 in our restaurant. By the time a customer gets it through these apps, it becomes $35, $40," Mukherjee said.

An OLS report published in April 2026, covering the ordinance's first 18 months, found that average driver hourly take-home pay reached $16.29 in the first half of 2025, up 6.5% from the same period in 2024. Total delivery orders grew 3.2% over that span across the five largest app companies.

Workers who believe they are owed wages can contact OLS at 206-256-5297 or [email protected].