Drivers for platforms like DoorDash, Lyft and Uber in Denver, Colorado, on average earn below the minimum wage. 

A recent study found that drivers for these platforms take home on average, $5.49 per hour when expenses and time spent on the app are taken into consideration. That average is approximately 35% of Denver’s 2022 minimum wage of $15.87 and is notably less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. 

 “We hope this study can shed light on what it’s really like to be a gig worker,” Sofia Solano, organizing director with Colorado Jobs With Justice, said. “As legislation is considered, no solution is going to be a good one for these workers unless they are collectively given a seat at the table.” 

According to experts, although the report focuses on drivers in Denver, gig worker drivers across the U.S. face similar issues, according to The Guardian. The research which was a collaborative effort between the drivers’ union Colorado Independent Drivers United and the workers' rights group Colorado Jobs polled hundreds of gig workers in the Denver area regarding their work between Nov. 1, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022.  

The Guardian also noted that the study is the latest effort to tackle and assess wages for gig workers. Such wages may differ depending on the factors considered and methods used when computing costs, time, and miles spent on the job. 

An Economic Policy Institute study conducted in 2018 revealed that Uber drivers earn an average of $9.21 an hour, while a paper published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research in that same year found Uber and Lyft drivers made a median of $8.55 each hour before taxes.