Three Democrats are proposing legislation they say will better protect app-based gig workers for companies like DoorDash, GrubHub, Uber and Lyft, among others.

Reps. Rick Krajewski, D-Philadelphia, Aerion Abney, D-Pittsburgh, and Jessica Benham, D-Carrick,

D-Philadelphia are circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation that would require app-based companies that use independent contractors for work to provide contractors with more information and protections. Among the lawmakers’ proposals are:

– Require companies to provide detailed weekly pay statements and itemized receipts to workers and consumers.

– Empower workers to learn how their pay rate, assignments, and disciplinary suspensions are determined.

– Ensure workers the right to appeal suspensions and account deactivations done without just cause.

– Guarantee that app-based drivers receive at least 75 percent of each passenger fare.

– Provide that app-based workers are correctly classified as employees and informed of their due rights under state law, including the right to unionize.

– Require equal pay for equal work.

“More than 250,000 Pennsylvanians are actively engaged in app-based work, delivering food, groceries, and packages for companies like DoorDash, GrubHub, Instacart, Uber, Lyft, and Amazon,” Krajewski, Abney and Benham wrote in their co-sponsorship memorandum. “These corporations rake in billions while avoiding nearly any regulation or oversight, using opaque algorithms to decide worker compensation, consumers costs, assignments, and suspensions. App workers – like all workers – deserve transparency, clarity and to be paid a livable wage. Consumers who use their services shouldn’t be gouged by surveillance pricing and corporate greed either.”

The Pennsylvania bill seems similar to federal legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2025. Senators Brian Schatz and Chris Murphy introduced the Empowering App-Based Workers Act that includes a requirement for platform companies to disclose how they use algorithms to manage, pay, assign work, and suspend workers while limiting algorithmic wage-setting and outlines clear limits on the data companies can collect, including about immigration status, health, disability, and sexual orientation. It would also guarantee rideshare drivers at least 75 percent of each fare and prohibit companies from paying workers differently for the same job.

“Every day rideshare drivers and delivery app workers work long hours and travel many miles to make a living, often without knowing how much money they’ll make. Our bill would shed some light on how apps determine work assignments and pay, ensuring workers are treated and paid fairly,” said Schatz, D-Hawaii.