DoorDash is raising its service fees in Seattle — again — due to the city’s laws for app-based workers.
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DoorDash is raising its service fees in Seattle — again — due to the city’s laws for app-based workers.
The on-demand delivery and pickup services company says the hikes are necessary to continue services in Seattle, where the company operated at a loss in 2024. However, the company also reported $3 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2025, with a 13.1% net revenue margin.
According to a DoorDash spokesperson, the company anticipates moderate increases to service fees, but those increases will vary depending on order specifics.
“[DoorDash] will take a flexible approach to ensure they can continue delivering in Seattle with the smallest possible impact to local businesses, Dashers and consumers,” the spokesperson told The Center Square in an email.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards is investigating whether app-based companies like DoorDash deactivated workers for permissible reasons. These app-based companies are required to give a 14-day notice of deactivation.
DoorDash says these regulations put the company in a position where it must increase its fees again.
The city already established a minimum wage for app-based delivery drivers that requires companies to pay their workers a minimum of $5.20 per offer. According to DoorDash, the company has to pay delivery drivers nearly $30 an hour before mileage and tips. Seattle minimum wage is $20.79.
Washington Policy Center’s Small Business Center Director Mark Harmsworth called Seattle’s regulations “burdensome,” due to impacts on local businesses and gig workers themselves.
"These policies, like the driver deactivation law, hurt gig workers by reducing orders and earnings while driving up prices. Seattle’s overreach stifles innovation and harms the very workers it claims to protect," Harmsworth told The Center Square in an email.
Since the Seattle app-based workers minimum wage went into effect, the average monthly revenue per store on DoorDash fell 2%, according to the company. Cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Denver saw average store sales rise over 10%.
“Enough is enough. Seattle’s local businesses, Dashers, and consumers are all feeling the squeeze of this overregulation,” the company wrote in a blog post.
In a statement sent to The Center Square, Office of Labor Standards Director Steven Marchese said the office has received positive feedback from gig workers in response to its support of workers’ transparency and due process rights under the city law.
“Since January 2024, we have received over 150 worker inquiries about the App-Based Worker Deactivation Rights Ordinance–those inquiries pertained to 12 different companies and most concerned the required notice of deactivation and required notice of records or evidence relied upon when a company deactivates a worker,” Marchese said.
“A significant number of these inquiries also related to the required deactivation policy, required notice of rights and notice of length of deactivation, as well as untimely notice of deactivation.”
The Office of Labor Standards provided information to workers and hiring entities in response to about 40% of the 151 inquiries. The office closed over 10% of inquiries due to insufficient information or unresponsiveness, and closed nearly 30% because it lacked jurisdiction.
The Center Square previously reported on some Seattle-based delivery drivers claiming they saw a significant drop in orders as a result of the service fees. Company data shows that its delivery workers saw their average hourly earnings for all time spent on the app decreasing by over 20% between the end of 2023 and the end of 2024.
That downward trend that has continued into 2025.
According to DoorDash, the city’s app-based work regulations have led to the city becoming the “most expensive market to facilitate delivery in the U.S.”