Los Angeles
tap to expand auditWhat was directly verified: LA Office of Wage Standards confirms current LA city minimum wage is $17.87/hr (effective until July 1, 2026, then rises to $18.42). Prop 22 mechanism (120% of local minimum at pickup location, plus $0.37/mile) confirmed across multiple sources (Grubhub driver support, Gopuff driver support, UC Berkeley Labor Center analysis).
What was directly verified: LA Office of Wage Standards confirms current LA city minimum wage is $17.87/hr (effective until July 1, 2026, then rises to $18.42). Prop 22 mechanism (120% of local minimum at pickup location, plus $0.37/mile) confirmed across multiple sources (Grubhub driver support, Gopuff driver support, UC Berkeley Labor Center analysis).
What was assumed (not directly verified)
The arithmetic $17.87 × 1.20 = $21.44 was performed by us, not cited from any source page directly. Considered structurally correct given the verified inputs.
Caveats a journalist should understand
This is the ENGAGED-TIME LEGAL FLOOR — the minimum a CA driver receives for time spent on an active delivery. It is NOT actual hourly earnings. UC Berkeley's 2024 study found California gig delivery drivers' actual employee-equivalent earnings were $4.98/hr without tips and $11.43/hr with tips, after expenses, well below the engaged-time floor. The floor applies to engaged time only and is paid as a per-pay-period adjustment if individual deliveries fall short. Most drivers spend significant unpaid time waiting for orders, which is excluded from this calculation. The figure should be cited as "the Prop 22 engaged-time floor, not actual earnings."
What would invalidate this
LA city min wage increase July 1, 2026 (will raise floor to $22.10). Court ruling against Prop 22. Change to the 120% multiplier. CA state-level gig worker reform.
Re-verify by
2026-07-29 (and again immediately after July 1, 2026 LA min wage increase)
Earnings (USD per hour)
Source: LA Office of Wage Standards (Prop 22 1.2× multiplier applied)
What would you take home in Los Angeles?
Take-home, weekly
$461
Take-home, monthly
$1,998
Gross, weekly
$643
Gross, monthly
$2,787
With a 1BR apartment outside the city centre at $2419/mo, rent costs more than your monthly take-home (121% of monthly net).
Take-home is gross hourly minus an estimated tax/expense rate per country. See the methodology page for the derivation. This widget assumes you actually work the hours you set. For app-based delivery, a portion of logged-in time is unpaid waiting; the headline rate reflects engaged time only where regulators have defined it.
Cost of living vs. earnings
That works out to roughly 36 hours per week. Rent at $2,419 per month is 65 percent of gross monthly earnings, which puts a Los Angeles delivery driver in HUD's “severely cost-burdened” band by the federal definition (over 30 percent of gross income on housing). Measured against net take-home pay, which is what a worker actually has available to spend, the same rent is 91 percent. Affordable rent at this earnings rate, defined by HUD as no more than 30 percent of gross income, would be around $1,110 per month. Across the 46 cities in the dataset, Los Angeles ranks 20th for hours needed to cover rent, where lower is better.
Pay vs. local labour market
Gross hourly is 86% of local minimum wage, 50% of local median.
Notes
CA Prop 22 baseline applies to app-based food and grocery delivery couriers. Engaged time only.
View Los Angeles on the interactive map
See full source citations for this city on the sources page. Read about how each metric is computed in the methodology.
Primary earnings source: wagesla.lacity.gov/ · archived