A delivery worker needs to complete nearly 150 deliveries a month to avoid poverty and over 450 to support a household

Working in delivery apps has become a source of income for thousands of people, although relying solely on this activity requires completing more and more deliveries. In this labor context, the differences in payment per order between platforms add to the costs of fuel, maintenance, and phone bills that each worker must face.

The economic situation of delivery workers is also unfolding amid a broader discussion about the labor model of apps. While the Justice system reviews their classification as independent workers, the increase in informality and difficulties in accessing registered jobs push more people towards an activity marked by variable incomes and scant protections.

What is the economic situation of delivery workers?

According to the Average Order Reach Coefficient from the Encuentro Foundation, in March 2026, a delivery worker needed to complete 453 orders to reach the Total Basic Basket for a household of four members. The calculation was based on an average payment of $3,165.20 per delivery, excluding tips.

At first glance, the result seems stable, because in December, when the last measurement was taken, 454 trips were needed. However, that variation of just one order hides a broader deterioration. The individual total basket increased from 140 to 147 deliveries, the food basket rose from 63 to 67, and the cost of raising a child increased from 170 to 175 orders. Additionally, an average rent went from 244 to 250 trips, and a studio apartment in Buenos Aires increased from 167 to 177.

This difference can be explained by the behavior of the platforms. Among those with market penetration, Rappi has kept the reported value per trip frozen since October 2025, so each increase in the cost of living automatically reduced its purchasing power. PedidosYa, on the other hand, raised its average from $3,659 to $3,924 in March and pushed the overall indicator from $3,033 to $3,165. Therefore, stability depends on the app in which one works and does not reflect a homogeneous improvement for all delivery workers.

The series that began in July 2025 confirms this pattern. The orders needed to sustain a typical household started at 450, peaked at 461 in September, and closed March at 453. When companies update the payment, the indicator improves immediately, but that recovery erodes again if the value remains frozen while the cost of living increases.

Moreover, the APP, Average Order Reach Coefficient, measures gross income. It does not include tips, but also does not deduct fuel, vehicle maintenance, phone bills, or other operational expenses. Consequently, the 453 deliveries represent a minimum to reach the basket and not the actual effort needed to sustain it.

Delivery workers from PedidosYa protested in Neuquén on April 5, 2026, demanding better pay, greater security, and compensation for long trips.

The labor model of the applications is also under judicial review. Rappi and PedidosYa consider their delivery workers as independent contractors, therefore they do not recognize rights such as vacation, bonuses, retirement contributions, severance pay, or coverage for workplace accidents.

However, the Ministry of Labor of Buenos Aires understood that the platforms exercise enough control over the activity to consider them employers and fined them for not registering their workers.

In April, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Province of Buenos Aires upheld many of those sanctions. Although the court did not definitively rule that all delivery workers are employees, its decisions reinforced the questioning of the hiring model of the platforms and left open the possibility of new labor claims.

For this reason, the rulings strengthened the controversy over the classification of delivery workers, but did not establish that all application workers are automatically dependent employees. The conflict will continue to revolve around who organizes the activity, sets the remuneration, and controls performance, as well as who must bear the contributions, vacations, bonuses, and coverage against accidents.

At the same time, the model pressures other participants in the chain. In this sense, Focus Market estimated that the commissions charged to businesses range between 25% and 35% of each sale, depending on the platform and the logistics service used. Since this cost can be passed on to the final price, the problem also reaches the consumer.

In fact, the most requested products recorded increases close to 41% year-on-year and the purchasing power measured in hamburgers, pizzas, and ice creams fell, on average, by 12% in a year. Thus, delivery continues to expand as a consumption habit, although the capacity of salaries to sustain that demand is weakening.

For delivery workers, finally, remuneration also coexists with road risk. The National Road Safety Agency indicated that motorcycle occupants represent 46% of the fatalities in accidents, a particularly relevant fact for an activity where the vehicle and a good part of its costs are borne by the worker.

About Employment and Salaries in Argentina

The growth of delivery cannot be separated from the labor market. In the first quarter of 2026, unemployment reached 7.8%, compared to 7.5% in the previous quarter, while underemployment reached 11.1%. Thus, the difficulty in accessing a formal position coexists with a growing number of people working fewer hours than they need.

In turn, a processing of the IIEP UBA-Conice on the Permanent Household Survey placed informality at 44.2% of the employed during the first quarter, two points above the previous year. In other words, more than four out of ten workers engage in activities without full coverage of labor, tax, or social security regulations.

In this scenario, apps offer a quick entry and the possibility of generating income without going through a traditional hiring process. However, research from Conicet shows that this flexibility coexists with uncertainty, algorithmic management, and difficulties in recognizing platforms as employers, even when they intervene in the organization of the work process.

Thus, delivery work serves as a refuge against unemployment or insufficient wages, but it also absorbs workers without guaranteeing them a collective reference to update their earnings. The delivery worker finds themselves at the intersection of both problems. It reduces visible unemployment, although within a universe of informality that shifts a good part of the costs, uncertainty, and risks of the activity onto them.

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