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Being a gig worker for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Walmart Spark, and other apps came with opportunities and lots of challenges in 2024.
Millions of workers made grocery deliveries, dropped off takeout at doorsteps, and drove people to the airport through the apps. Workers involved in the gig economy told Business Insider that it's still a tempting way to make money.
At the same time, many told BI that they faced challenges working for the apps.
Here are some of the biggest factors that affected gig workers in 2024:
Workers' gross earnings on several gig delivery apps, including DoorDash and Uber Eats, fell in 2023, a study from Gridwise found in February. Uber Eats drivers, for instance, saw their earnings fall 15.4% on average — the largest drop of any service. Spokespeople for DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart told BI that the study used incomplete data.
Many gig workers don't even earn the equivalent of their local minimum wage after accounting for expenses such as gas, researchers at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the Center for Wage and Employment Dynamics found in May.
In some cases, good tips have also gotten harder to come by. Workers for some services, such as Walmart's Spark, told BI that customers continued to "tip bait" them, or offer a good tip when the workers accept a delivery only to take it back afterward.
Hackers have targeted roughly one-fifth of accounts on food delivery apps, online fraud tracker Sift found in May. That total includes both customer accounts, which hackers can mine for reward points, and the delivery workers' accounts.
Some delivery workers for Walmart's Spark service told BI that they saw signs that someone else was using their account. One said that Spark told her that she was logged into more than one device and her activity history on the app included orders that she had never delivered.
Some legitimate, policy-abiding workers struggled with having their gig work accounts deactivated, often with little explanation or recourse, meanwhile. One facial recognition ID tool used by Walmart's Spark to prevent the improper use of driver accounts even kicked some actual workers off of the app. Walmart said at the time that the facial recognition feature was working as intended and that users who thought that they were incorrectly deactivated could appeal the decision.
Instead of continuing to earn money through apps like Uber or DoorDash, some gig workers started their own businesses to cut out the middleman.
Uber and Lyft drivers with their own black-car services, for instance, told BI that they have been able to make more money by building relationships with clients directly, including many whom they met through rides via the rideshare apps. It's also allowed them to work on their own schedules — something that the rideshare apps have long promoted as a benefit of working for them.
Tony Illes, a delivery driver in Seattle, used a similar approach to start his own food delivery service. Illes told BI that he promotes his service through posters around downtown Seattle and provides estimated wait times to his customers through voice notes.
Cities such as New York City and Seattle implemented new laws about gig work, especially pay, at the start of 2024.
In New York, gig workers delivering restaurant food now earn $19.56 an hour at minimum, a rate that will be adjusted for inflation each year. Seattle implemented a law — part of a package called "Pay Up" — that required Instacart and other delivery services to pay workers the equivalent of $19.97 an hour.
The companies fought back. In New York City, for example, DoorDash added a $1.99 fee that it said offset that city's pay law.
And in Seattle, Instacart shoppers in the city's suburbs said that the app was sending them on longer routes to avoid taking them within city limits — and paying them more.
Using apps to find work as an independent contractor isn't unique to rideshare and food delivery.
One report summary released earlier this month by the Roosevelt Institute investigated the expansion of such gig apps to nursing jobs at hospitals, care homes, and other medical facilities.
Like rideshare and delivery workers, many nurses and nursing assistants told the researchers behind the report that they appreciate the flexibility that working for the apps gives them. Many also dealt with problems similar to other gig workers, from being kicked off the platforms without explanation to navigating a workplace without an in-person boss or clear coworkers.
One IT worker who found work as an independent contractor in that field told BI in February that he enjoyed the freedom but had a hard time finding a full-time job again.
Do you work in the gig economy and have a story idea? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com
