On Monday morning around the Virginia Beach area, Spencer Joyce clocked in. This isn’t an office situation, by the way. When he’s ready to work, he hops into his 2009 Subaru Forester and logs into his Door Dash app. And while $17 bucks an hour on average might sound decent, once you run the numbers, it’s actually total trash.

“I just accepted every order for 12 hours straight.”

Joyce explains that he was Dashing anything that popped up for about 12 hours and 10 minutes. Of that half-day, Joyce says he was actively delivering for 9 hours and 56 minutes.

His largest tip was $14.25. He earned it from a Food Lion grocery order.

His smallest tip was $3. That was a Starbucks order.

He took 30-minute breaks from 10:30 am to 11:00 am and 3:45 pm to 4:15 pm. 

After a long day, he collected a total of $215 from Door Dash.

Door Dash doesn’t pay for fuel or health insurance

Even though drivers are actively working for a large company while they’re delivering, they’re considered independent contractors. As such, Door Dash doesn’t have to cover drivers’ operating expenses.

That means every time Joyce needs to fill up his Subaru during a shift, it’s always on his dime.

What’s more, Door Dash doesn’t offer benefits packages like health insurance or retirement plans.

So that $17 bucks an hour, which translates to $35,360 annually, is before taxes, fuel costs, health care coverage, and car insurance premiums, maintenance, and repairs.

In other words, this guy’s not even scraping by, in all honesty. Here’s why:

Investopedia estimates that a 30-year-old might pay around $618 a month for a health care plan. Now, Door Dash does reportedly provides support and resources to drivers looking for “affordable” healthcare.

For those pointed toward the ACA marketplace, by the way, which is what Door Dash means by “We’ll provide support in finding healthcare,” the range varies from $380 to that $618 per month.

In Virginia Beach, Insurance.com says the average state min car insurance policy runs drivers $527 for 6 months.

Edmunds says the 2009 Subaru Forester gets 20 mpg city. Seems high, so considering it’s age, let’s say it’s really, like, 17. On this workday, that’s about 13 gallons of gas. 

The Forester has a 16.9-gallon fuel tank capacity. So the day cost him ¾ tank. According to AAA’s fuel prices page, Virginia Beach is running at $3.125 per gallon. That’s $40 bucks a day on gas.

Feeling the driver’s squeeze yet? Stay with me…

Let’s say Joyce landed a health care plan for $499 a month and pays $87 a month for car insurance.

We might also say he’ll work 21 days this month and averages about 30 bucks in daily fuel costs. That’s $630 for July.

Finally, we’ll assume he isn’t going to do the 12-hour stints all too often. $17 bucks for 9 hour-shifts over 21 days is $3,213 in gross earnings.

But Door Dash doesn’t withhold taxes, either

As an independent contractor, this driver must pay self-employment tax. That covers both Social Security and Medicare. The rate is 15.3%. On $3,213, that’s about $492.

Federal income tax also applies. For someone in a lower bracket, the rate is likely around 10%. That adds another $321 in estimated taxes.

Virginia has a state income tax. It’s tiered, but for $3,213 in income, the estimated state tax is about $66.

Add it all up, and taxes take a bite of about $879.

That leaves the driver with roughly $2,334 in true take-home pay before ANY expenses

But that number could go up. Gig drivers often write off gas, mileage, maintenance, and even part of their phone bill. Those deductions lower taxable income. That means they could owe less in taxes and keep more money.

With good records and common write-offs, that same driver might keep $2,500 or more. Without them, the IRS gets the full cut.

After the above researched expenses, I’m guessing Joyce might net $1,118 in July delivering for Door Dash. That’s STILL before rent, groceries, clothing, car maintenance…yikes.

Truly, this is side hustle money for full-time work.

MotorBiscuit reached out to @spencerjoycesworld via TikTok direct message for comment.