Powered by a battery and pedals, these bikes help workers cover more ground and make more tips. One of the most immediate challenges for delivery workers is the legal gray area occupied by electric-assist bicycles. “It’s truly a community that’s so vulnerable, that has no power to organize at all,” Chen says. Uber takes a 20 percent cut, one East Village delivery worker told the Voice, leaving him anywhere from $80 to $100 over a 10-hour shift. “Many people take this job because they have no other options,” Chen says, adding that while the advent of tech companies like Amazon and Uber has shifted responsibility away from sometimes-abusive individual restaurants, the hyper-efficient apps have also flooded the market with delivery workers and driven down pay. “I found they were willing to cut pay and treat you poorly, so they can push you out the door and hire someone else for even less money.” We’re not together in any of this,’” Giampieri says. “The way you’re treated from the beginning is, ‘You don’t really work here. His previous gigs in Manhattan were not as kind. While Chen kept track of wage theft by one of his employers in Manhattan, Giampieri says the Williamsburg pizzeria he worked for treated him well. Some restaurants are known for abusing their workers, but others have good reputations. Tips drive the total higher Giampieri says he usually earned $100 to $140 over an eight-hour shift. “You might not see the other people, just because you’re so busy.”ĭelivery workers are typically paid at or just above New York’s tipped minimum wage, currently $4.50 for restaurants with 10 or fewer employees, though undocumented workers are often coerced into getting paid less. Giampieri, who is half-Argentinian and bilingual, knew that as an NYU student he was in a different caste than most other delivery cyclists. “The way the employment is structured, you’re an independent contractor,” says Mario Giampieri, who began delivering cookies, chicken fingers and burritos as a student at New York University before taking a job delivering pizza in Williamsburg.
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