Peak pay is a promotional bonus that Doordash offers to its Dashers every now and then. The way it works is that Doordash will assign certain regions with a peak pay bonus for a specified date and time. For example, a region may offer $2 peak pay on Saturday from 8pm to 12am.
This is great as it means that all Dashers will receive $2 extra per call completed during this time. This is in addition to the regular base pay and customer tips received. Dashers all over the nation always gladly welcome peak pay, but do Dashers in California really care?
How does Prop 22 impact peak pay in California?
As most are aware of, California gig workers are protected under Prop 22 to earn a minimum amount of pay for their active time. Currently, this comes out to roughly around $20 per hour of active time when you factor in the mileage reimbursement (Another Prop 22 benefit.)
For the sake of this article, I'm not going to get all in to the Prop 22 benefits except for the two that I just mentioned, because those are the ones that matter when we are talking about earnings. Also, I am going to use the $20 minimum pay per hour for active time in my examples. The official guaranteed earnings are 120 percent of minimum wage, and that will always come out to around $20.
Example of how Prop 22 impacts peak pay promotions in California
Example of active peak pay:
When Doordash offers a promo in California for let's say $2, it may not matter much to Dashers. Let's say that during an hour a Dasher does two deliveries with each call paying $6. Let's also say that each order tipped $2 each. That would mean that the Dasher earned $16 during that hour. Now, let's add in those $2 promo bonuses, and we have a total of $20 for the hour.
Under prop 22, the California Dasher is guaranteed $20 per hour for their active, plus when you add in the tips (which are not included in Prop 22 pay,) you have an additional $4. The Dasher will have earned a total of $24 for the two calls during this hour with prop 22 pay adjustments.
Example of no active peak pay:
Now, let's do those same two calls with no peak pay bonus. Again, two calls paying $6 each with a $2 tip. That is $16 earned for the hour. This comes short of the $20 earned for the hour with the promos. But, wait a minute! With Prop 22, a Dasher will earn $20 for those two calls plus $4 of tips for a total of $24. Where did this extra $4 come from? Well, as already mentioned, tips are not included with the $20 per active time guarantee.
As you can see, the peak pay did absolutely nothing for the Dasher. They earned the exact same thing with or without the peak pay. With that said, to most Dashers, the peak pay is ignored. The way they see it, any peak pay Doordash is paying is just coming from money that they will already earn through the prop 22 adjustments.
Some think a California Dasher working during peak pay promotions will earn more
There are some California Dashers out there that will disagree with peak pay promotions being useless. These Dashers usually state that they rarely ever get any prop 22 adjustments, so they will always appreciated the peak pay. I do agree that for some Dashers this may be the case, but they are truly the minority.
How the rest of the country uses peak pay to increase their earnings
For Dashers that are not in California, there's no doubt that peak pay promotions are always appreciated. Getting a $1, $2, $3 or sometimes more peak pay bonus on top of base earnings and customer tips is always a good thing. Complete enough deliveries during the specified time period, and there can be a lot of money earned that otherwise wouldn't have been.
It's always best for Dashers around the nation to keep an eye out for upcoming peak pay promotions in their area. Remember to pay attention to the dates and times so that you can make sure you're dashing during the right time.
Usually, Doordash will offer promotions during special event times such as Super Bowl Sunday, Christmas Day, etc. Don't think for a minute that's the only time though. There are days when Doordash seems to offer these terrific peak pay promotions for no apparent reason at all. Whatever the case is, be sure to get the most you can out of these peak pay promotions.
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