On Wages

It’s a common cry across social and popular media to deride one business or another for the way they model their wage structure. Most of my current income is earned by delivering food for companies like DoorDash and GrubHub. I do pretty well, but I’ve also spent a year and half learning how to do pretty well in my particular market. When these companies offer deliveries for amounts and distances below my professional standard, I simply reject them. What I don’t do is write articles decrying “predatory pay models” or other such signaling buzz words. It’s nonsense, and this is why: businesses do not and may not take our labor. Rather, they accept our labor in exchange for their money. We do the job at the wage agreed upon up-front, we get paid (at least) that amount. If we don’t agree, we don’t do it. If someone else does, good for them. If they can’t find anyone to agree, they increase the offer until they do, or cancel it. So long as it’s accepted willingly, everyone benefits. Third party opinions about it are totally irrelevant. If these companies are no longer profitable for you in your market, find a new company. Nobody’s forcing you to work for them. And that’s today’s two cents.

Save as PDFPrint

Written by 

Founder and editor of Everything-Voluntary.com and UnschoolingDads.com, Skyler is a husband and unschooling father of three beautiful children. His writings include the column series “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” and “One Improved Unit,” and blog series “Two Cents“. Skyler also wrote the books No Hitting! and Toward a Free Society, and edited the books Everything Voluntary and Unschooling Dads. You can hear Skyler chatting away on his podcasts, Everything Voluntary and Thinking & Doing.