The concerns faced by food delivery workers in Singapore were the focus of a working paper conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).
The findings showed that 3.2 per cent of the 1,002 surveyed food delivery riders earn more than S$5,000 a month but with “prerequisites for significant earnings.”
The study included in-depth interviews with 48 riders to understand better their views on various areas of concern, namely earnings, job benefits, social protection and representation.
A total of 68 per cent of the respondents said they were worried about not earning enough due to increased competition in the industry.
The number of people joining the food delivery industry has outpaced the demand for such services, thus affecting the existing riders’ earnings.
IPS noted in the paper published on Nov 4 that food delivery riders earn a median income of S$1,925.
The number of hours riders spend on food deliveries varied drastically, with 40.6 per cent saying they worked more than 44 hours a week.
Those who earned in the S$5,000 range were found to have worked 12 hours a day, while those who earned below S$5,000 worked around nine hours.
“Although there have been reported claims of riders earning S$8,000 a month or more from food delivery work, most riders believe that S$8,000 a month from food delivery work is unrealistic for themselves,” the study noted.
While respondents were generally satisfied with their work as food delivery riders, the study highlighted many areas where improvements in social protection are needed to safeguard the workers’ welfare, especially in the long term.
For savings, only a quarter of riders reported having enough to take care of their personal and their family’s needs for the next three to six months if they stopped working.
More than half of the respondents expressed worry about their savings in the long run, especially for retirement and unforeseen medical crises.
“There is a clear need for social protection considering the vulnerability of riders to accidents. Riders who spend more hours doing food delivery work are more likely to have been in at least one accident, with 38.3 per cent who rode for 51 hours and above a week noting they met with at least one accident.”
Furthermore, 51.2 per cent of the riders, mostly the younger ones or newer to the industry, desired CPF contributions from their food delivery work.
In the trade-off between income and protection, riders were more likely to choose to receive a higher income from their work in exchange for poorer social protection (62.9 per cent).
At the same time, 57.6 per cent of the riders believe that the gig economy is the future of work; hence they were fairly open to alternative careers or opportunities in other industries. However, more than a third of them want at least a S$3,000 a month salary in their new job before considering the offer.
Read the full report here./TISG
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