DoorDash mentioned on Wednesday that it might start giving its supply drivers the choice to be paid an hourly minimal wage, as an alternative of incomes cash for every supply.

The vital shift in compensation may very well be a solution to considerations that some supply individuals are not paid pretty. It may additionally add an incentive for drivers to choose up smaller orders that don’t pay as nicely and that they’d usually keep away from.

Drivers will have the ability to select whether or not they earn cash for every order — often a number of {dollars} in base pay plus compensation for miles pushed — or obtain a flat hourly quantity, DoorDash mentioned.

The hourly charge contains solely energetic time, which means time between accepting and dropping off an order, and doesn’t embody the interval when drivers are ready for the subsequent order. Drivers will have the ability to toggle between the 2 fee strategies. Tips can be utilized on high of the hourly base pay, the corporate mentioned.

DoorDash, which makes use of gig employees to move meals and different deliveries, introduced the change as a part of Dash Forward, a product occasion marking DoorDash’s tenth anniversary.

DoorDash mentioned it was including the fee possibility in response to driver suggestions, and since it needed to present drivers extra decision-making energy.

“One of the things we’ve heard a lot is around choice: Choice of when, where and how they earn is really important,” mentioned Cody Aughney, head of the corporate’s Dasher & Logistics workforce.

The relationship between gig employees and corporations like DoorDash and Uber has been scrutinized in recent times by regulators and labor activists. The largest questions have been over how these employees are categorised and whether they are adequately paid.

Gig drivers are often unbiased contractors who’re liable for their very own bills and don’t obtain advantages like full-time staff. They have lengthy complained that they’re underpaid and sometimes exploited by the companies.

DoorDash mentioned drivers who selected to be paid hourly and people incomes cash per supply have been prone to earn an analogous quantity. The minimal compensation will depend upon the area and vary from $10 to $19.50 per hour, the corporate mentioned.

The new fee methodology is similar to Proposition 22, a 2020 California poll measure that was backed by gig corporations and assured drivers a minimal wage and different restricted advantages in change for precluding them from being categorised as staff.

But DoorDash mentioned there was an enormous distinction: Drivers can swap between hourly and per-delivery pay as often as they need. The new system is not going to be utilized in California, Seattle or New York — areas which have handed legal guidelines governing minimal pay for drivers.

Sergio Avedian, a longtime driver and a contributor to The Rideshare Guy, a weblog that gives tricks to gig drivers, mentioned an hourly pay possibility “gives the drivers a little bit of a comfort zone.”

Mr. Avedian, who encourages drivers to say no orders which might be unlikely to supply an honest payday or a superb tip, mentioned the hourly fee may very well be a method for DoorDash to get them to just accept smaller deliveries they’d have skipped.

“On their end, the point is to push as many orders as they can, and on the driver’s end, it may give them some security,” he mentioned.

Because some drivers do decline much less fascinating orders, DoorDash mentioned, those that settle for all the pieces they’re provided obtain a disproportionate variety of these cheaper deliveries and are put at a drawback. Hourly minimal pay, the corporate mentioned, will assist that group.