Companion to "Marketed pay vs reported pay" and "Getting set up without getting burned."
One row per platform per week, copied from the payout screen after the week closes. You are building your own reported-pay table. Yours are the only numbers that decide your plank mix.
Reported figures are gross, before expenses and before self-employment tax. Gridwise 2024 averages from 171M+ trips; Instacart median from Gridwise 2025 data across 20,538 tracked shoppers.
| Platform | Marketed | Reported (gross) |
|---|---|---|
| Uber | "$33/hr average" (company claim, Q4 2023) | $23.33/hr average (Gridwise 2024) |
| Lyft | "up to $43/hr" (LA ad, FTC case) | $23.23/hr average (Gridwise 2024) |
| Instacart | no hourly figure published ("actual earnings may vary") | $12.21/hr median (Gridwise 2025) |
| DoorDash | "make money your way" | $12.23/hr average (Gridwise 2024) |
| Uber Eats | varies by market | $14.96/hr average (Gridwise 2024) |
| Amazon Flex | "most drivers earn up to $18-25*/hr" | block pay shown upfront, gross |
When you see a gig pay number, ask four questions before you believe it: Up to, or typical? Average, or median? Gross, or after expenses? Engaged hour, or clock hour? Any platform ad that fails two of the four is marketing, not information.
Effective gross hour = (base + tips + promos) ÷ clock hours, including wait time. Hours from your log, not from the app's engaged-hour figure.
| Platform | Week of | Base pay | Tips | Promos | Fee as shown on payout screen | Clock hours | Effective gross hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ | |||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | $ |
| Best plank this month by effective gross hour | |
| Worst plank this month | |
| Fee stack differs from the platform's pay page? Note it | ☐ No ☐ Yes: |
| Plank-mix change for next month |