Delivery riders guaranteed at least $31.30 an hour from 17 August

By Jonas Valenti · 2026-08-12

What the order requires

From 17 August, every food and grocery delivery platform operating in Australia must pay its riders and drivers a legally enforceable minimum hourly rate. Clause 14 of the Order sets the floor at $31.30 per hour for cyclists and e-scooter riders, $31.50 for combustion motorcycle or scooter riders, and $32.00 for workers using a motor vehicle up to one tonne.^[3] The spread reflects the cost burden each vehicle type places on the worker, not a judgement about which delivery is worth more.

The rates apply to "employee-like workers" engaged through digital labour platforms to collect and deliver food, beverages, liquor or groceries. Workers outside that definition, including those already engaged under genuine employment contracts, are not covered.

A brief delay, then locked in

The Expert Panel of the Fair Work Commission published its notice of intent and draft order on 8 July 2026, with a proposed start date of 10 August.^[1] That slipped by one week after a final round of submissions. Kuwthar Aumarah, Associate to Justice Hatcher, President of the Fair Work Commission, communicated the revised timeline on 7 August: "The Commission will not be in a position to make a final minimum standards order in matter MS2024/3 today. It anticipates being in a position to do so next week. The operative date of any such order will not be earlier than 17 August 2026."^[2]

The week's delay changes nothing structural. Once made, the order carries full legal force under section 536JY of the Fair Work Act 2009, the provision inserted by the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Act 2024, which commenced on 26 August 2024.^[4]

How the consent deal came together

The Transport Workers' Union of Australia applied for a minimum standards order on 28 August 2024, the day after the Closing Loopholes framework took effect.^[4] What followed was not a straightforward contest between labour and capital. The TWU's draft minimum standards order was prepared in conjunction with Uber Eats and DoorDash, reflecting a consent proposal between those parties.^[4] The Expert Panel, comprising Justice Hatcher, Vice President Asbury and Commissioner Connolly, consulted through the Road Transport Advisory Group before publishing the draft order.

The two largest delivery platforms signing on to the proposal shapes what the order looks like. Flexible scheduling, the defining feature of platform work that both riders and companies cite as the reason the model exists, is preserved. The order sets a floor on pay, not a roster, and workers remain free to log in and out as they choose.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke said: "What we're saying is we don't want to be a country where you have to rely on tips to make ends meet and we need to have some minimum standards, but still in the gig economy, keep that flexibility that everyone likes."^[5]

Beyond pay: insurance, transparency and forums

The pay floor is the headline figure, but the order reaches considerably further.^[3] Platforms must arrange personal accident insurance for every covered worker, a protection conspicuously absent from gig arrangements since the model arrived in Australia. Riders injured on a shift will not be left without recourse.

The order also mandates a Gig Worker Information Statement covering pay transparency, the establishment of platform feedback forums, formal dispute resolution procedures, a right to unpaid time away, and recognition of union delegate rights.^[3] Each obligation is legally binding from the date the order is made, not phased in later. The Information Statement requirement is particularly notable given that platforms have routinely withheld the per-hour breakdown of what workers actually earn, making it difficult for riders to assess whether a particular job makes financial sense.

Platform feedback forums give workers a structured channel to raise concerns with the company, short of formal dispute resolution. Union delegate provisions allow TWU representatives to operate openly on platform networks, a right with no precedent in the on-demand delivery sector in Australia.

What platforms and client businesses should expect

The immediate compliance question for platforms is straightforward: calculate whether current effective hourly rates, measured across active delivery time, meet the new floors. Where they do not, rates must rise by 17 August. The order's mechanism measures time on a per-engagement basis rather than awarding a flat shift wage, so platforms will need to audit how they attribute working time to individual jobs.

For the restaurants, retailers and grocery chains that pay platform fees to have their products delivered, the cost transmission is less direct but no less real. Platforms absorbing higher labour costs will look to recover them through fee structures over time. Businesses that rely heavily on third-party delivery and operate on thin margins should model what a modest increase in platform fees does to their unit economics before that conversation arrives.

The indexation mechanism is the longer-term exposure. Rates increase by 50 cents on 1 January 2027, then track the National Minimum Wage annually after that.^[3] Every time the Fair Work Commission lifts the National Minimum Wage in its annual review, delivery platform costs move in lockstep. That mechanism is structural, and no negotiation is available on it.

A world-first model and what comes next

Australia is the first country to impose a statutory minimum hourly rate on on-demand delivery platforms through a consent-based process involving the platforms themselves. Other jurisdictions, notably Spain, the United Kingdom and parts of the European Union, have pursued classification-based approaches that reclassify gig workers as employees entitled to employment rights. Australia's model takes a different path, creating a new legal category, the employee-like worker, and building a bespoke set of minimum standards around it without disturbing the independent contractor relationship.

Whether that model travels depends on how it performs in practice. If platforms comply without significant pricing disruption and riders see material improvements in earnings and safety coverage, it becomes a template. If platforms respond by reducing work availability or shifting to models outside the order's coverage, pressure on the Commission to expand the framework will intensify. The Closing Loopholes Act gives the Commission power to make further minimum standards orders across other platform sectors, and the TWU and other unions are watching the delivery sector as a proof of concept for what comes next in transport, care and other gig-dominated industries.

The framework commences on 17 August 2026.

Jonas Valenti

Jonas Valenti writes about search and how businesses get discovered. He has spent years watching what makes a company visible online, and is unsentimental about tactics that no longer work.