Food Delivery Minimum Pay Order Explained: What Riders Get

Short answer: since 17 August 2026, food and grocery delivery riders on apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash have had a legal minimum earnings floor of $31.30 to $32.00 an hour — but only for “engaged time”, the time between accepting a delivery and completing it. It isn’t an hourly wage, it’s checked over a period of up to 21 days, and riders who already earn above the floor get nothing extra.

How it got here

The Transport Workers’ Union applied for the order (case MS2024/3), and the version the Commission adopted was largely the one the TWU proposed with the support of Uber and DoorDash. On 8 July 2026 the Commission published a draft order and asked for submissions by 29 July. On 11 August it made the final order in substantially the same terms, with drafting clarifications, the word “Interim” added to the title, and a start date of 17 August 2026 (the draft had proposed 10 August).

The Commission can do this because of the “employee-like worker” rules added to the Fair Work Act by the Closing Loopholes reforms. Section 536JY lets it make minimum standards orders for employee-like workers. An order can cover payment terms, deductions, records, insurance, consultation, representation, delegates’ rights and cost recovery. It can’t cover overtime rates, rostering, anything that would turn contractors into employees, or work health and safety matters handled by other laws.

The rates

From 1 January 2028 the rates rise each year by the same percentage as the National Minimum Wage increase in the Commission’s Annual Wage Review, unless the Commission orders otherwise. Riders using a vehicle that carries more than 1 tonne aren’t covered.

The part that matters most: “engaged time”

The order doesn’t say riders get paid the rate for every hour they work. Within each earnings period, the platform compares what you were actually paid against your engaged hours × the rate for your vehicle. If you came up short, it pays the difference as a top-up. If you were already above it — as many riders are in busy areas at busy times — nothing changes.

Engaged time starts when you accept a delivery and ends when you complete it. If you accept a new job while still finishing another, it starts when the earlier one is finished. A batched job with several orders counts from accepting the first to completing the last.

These periods don’t count as engaged time:

• time logged in when you’re not on a job, including waiting for an offer
• time after the customer cancels and you’ve been told — unless the platform has you do something, such as returning the items
• jobs you abandon before finishing
• time lost to breakdowns, accidents, breaks, or any other reason outside the platform’s control
• “non-engaged time”: delaying a pickup when the items were ready and you were nearby, delaying delivery after pickup, not marking a completed job as done, or taking an unreasonable route (including stopping for more than 5 minutes for something unrelated to the job)

Non-engaged time has a warning process. The platform must notify you the first and second time it believes a job included it, with the information it relied on. Only after the second notice can later periods of non-engaged time be left out of your engaged time. Notices expire after 6 months, and the platform must tell you the total non-engaged time it has excluded before each earnings period ends.

The order doesn’t specifically deal with waiting at a restaurant for an order that isn’t ready yet. Whether that time counts is likely to depend on the circumstances, so if it matters to you, ask the platform or the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The 21-day check

The earnings period is set by the platform and can be up to 21 days. A top-up is paid in the next earnings period, or within 7 days after it ends. So money for work at the start of one period could arrive more than a month later — worth knowing if delivery is your main income.

Don't confuse two different "21 days": the earnings period can be up to 21 days, and separately the Commission must start a review of this order within 21 days of publishing a draft order in either parcel delivery case. You also have 21 days to apply to the Commission if you think you've been unfairly deactivated. They're unrelated.

What else the order requires

• Information with each job offer: where to pick up, whether it includes bulky items or alcohol, the rough delivery location, the minimum delivery fee the platform estimates it will pay, and the estimated time.
• Pay information each earnings period: your gross and net pay, any deductions, and your total engaged hours. Platforms must keep these records for 7 years and give you copies on request.
• Insurance: the platform must pay for personal accident insurance with a reasonable minimum level of cover. It doesn’t have to match workers’ compensation, and benefits are offset against any workers’ compensation you’re entitled to. You must take out compulsory third-party insurance for your vehicle yourself.
• Notice of big changes: if a platform decides to leave a market, drop a delivery category, change which vehicles are allowed, or permanently change operating hours in an area, it must tell affected riders and give them a chance to give feedback.
• A platform feedback forum meeting four times a year, with union delegates. It can discuss issues but can’t make decisions.
• A Gig Worker Information Statement explaining your rights, sent by email and in the app.
• Dispute resolution: disputes about the order go through the platform’s own process first, then can go to the Commission for mediation or a non-binding recommendation (or binding arbitration if both sides agree).

The order also confirms that you choose when to work and can take unpaid time away by not accepting jobs — though platforms can still set reasonable minimum acceptance and completion rates.

What it doesn’t give you: superannuation, penalty rates, pay for waiting between jobs, or vehicle cost recovery. The order says vehicle registration, repairs, fuel and other running costs, and licences or checks the platform requires, are at the rider’s own expense, as are fines (unless you were following the platform’s direction). Where the order applies, it also replaces state owner-driver laws in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia for that work.

Who this covers — and who it doesn’t

The order covers employee-like workers (gig workers) whose work through an app, across an earnings period, is mainly on-demand delivery of food, drinks, alcohol or supermarket groceries ordered by a customer for immediate delivery — and the platforms that engage them.

The order doesn’t change whether you’re a contractor. If you deliver through an app you’re still an independent contractor for tax purposes: see how side hustle income is taxed and whether you need an ABN.

Other rights that already applied

Separately from the order, the Fair Work Act gives employee-like workers some protections of their own:

• Unfair deactivation: since 26 February 2025, platforms covered by the Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code must follow a fair process before deactivating you. If you’ve worked regularly for at least 6 months and earn under the contractor high income threshold, you can apply to the Commission within 21 days of being deactivated.
• Unfair contract terms: for services contracts entered into on or after 26 August 2024, you can ask the Commission to change unfair terms about workplace matters.

If you deliver for a living

1. Check your earnings-period statements. Platforms must show your engaged hours and what you were paid. Multiply the hours by your vehicle’s rate to see whether a top-up was owed.
2. Keep your own record of shifts and jobs, so you can compare if something looks wrong.
3. Raise problems with the platform first through its dispute process. If that doesn’t resolve it, the Commission can mediate.
4. Get help if you need it. The Fair Work Ombudsman gives free advice on the order and can enforce it. Unions and community legal centres can also help.

Why “a 25% pay rise” was the wrong description

Some coverage described the order as a pay rise to at least $31.30 an hour. That’s misleading: the floor applies only to engaged time and is checked over up to 21 days, so a rider who already earns above it over a period gets nothing extra, and one who spends a lot of time waiting between jobs may still earn well under $31.30 per logged-in hour. Read the order itself, or the Fair Work Ombudsman’s summary, rather than a headline.

This article explains the order as at 27 October 2026 and is general information, not legal advice. The order is interim and may be reviewed or varied. Check the Fair Work Commission's case page and the Fair Work Ombudsman for the current version.

Correction, 27 October 2026: this guide was first published on 26 July 2026, when the order was still a draft. It has been updated now that the order has been made: it started on 17 August 2026 (not the proposed 10 August), the rates are confirmed from the made order, the submissions deadline has passed, and we’ve removed earlier statements that the order includes deactivation protections and cost and fuel recovery — it doesn’t.

This article is general information only, not tax, legal or financial advice. It doesn't consider your personal circumstances. For advice on your situation, speak to a registered tax agent or licensed adviser, and always check current requirements with the official source linked above.