[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
INDEPENDENT WORK, REAL OPPORTUNITY: THE
GIG ECONOMY AND THE FUTURE OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
APRIL 21, 2026
__________
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Small Business Committee Document Number 119-035
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
63-521 WASHINGTON : 2026
=======================================================================
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas, Chairman
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
JAKE ELLZEY, Texas
MARK ALFORD, Missouri
BRAD FINSTAD, Minnesota
TONY WIED, Wisconsin
ROB BRESNAHAN, Pennsylvania
BRIAN JACK, Georgia
KIMBERLYN KING-HINDS, Northern Marina Islands
DEREK SCHMIDT, Kansas
JIMMY PATRONIS, Florida
CLAY FULLER, Georgia
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Ranking Member
MORGAN MCGARVEY, Kentucky
HILLARY SCHOLTEN, Michigan
LAMONICA MCIVER, New Jersey
GIL CISNEROS, California
KELLY MORRISON, Minnesota
GEORGE LATIMER, New York
DEREK TRAN, California
LATEEFAH SIMON, California
JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI, Maryland
MAGGIE GOODLANDER, New Hampshire
Sean Dillon, Majority Staff Director
Melissa Jung, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Roger Williams.............................................. 1
Hon. Nydia Velazquez............................................. 2
WITNESSES
Ms. Kristin Sharp, Chief Executive Officer, Flex Association,
Washington, DC................................................. 5
Ms. Lisa Alvarez Acevedo, President, Joyce Florist of Dallas,
Dallas, TX..................................................... 6
Ms. Elaine Buxton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Confero
Inc., Cary, NC................................................. 8
Ms. Rosa Thurnher, Owner, Aztec Travel Inc dba El Ponce, Atlanta,
GA............................................................. 9
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Ms. Kristin Sharp, Chief Executive Officer, Flex Association,
Washington, DC............................................. 37
Ms. Lisa Alvarez Acevedo, President, Joyce Florist of Dallas,
Dallas, TX................................................. 43
Ms. Elaine Buxton, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Confero Inc., Cary, NC..................................... 46
Ms. Rosa Thurnher, Owner, Aztec Travel Inc dba El Ponce,
Atlanta, GA................................................ 50
Questions and Answers for the Record:
Questions from Hon. Velazquez to Ms. Kristin Sharp and
Answers from Ms. Kristin Sharp............................. 54
Questions from Hon. Goodlander to Ms. Kristin Sharp and
Answers from Ms. Kristin Sharp............................. 58
Questions from Hon. Tran to Ms. Kristin Sharp and Answers
from Ms. Kristin Sharp..................................... 60
Questions from Hon. Velazquez to Ms. Rosa Thurnher and
Answers from Ms. Rosa Thurnher............................. 62
Questions from Hon. Tran to Ms. Rosa Thurnher and Answers
from Ms. Rosa Thurnher..................................... 64
Additional Material for the Record:
Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC).......................... 66
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).................... 68
Economic Policy Institute (EPI).............................. 69
Community Service Society (CSS).............................. 96
Responsible Online Commerce Coalition (ROCC)................. 108
INDEPENDENT WORK, REAL OPPORTUNITY: THE GIG ECONOMY AND THE FUTURE OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
----------
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2026
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Roger Williams
[chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Williams, Meuser, Alford, Wied,
Jack, King-Hinds, Patronis, Fuller, Velazquez, McGarvey,
Scholten, McIver, Cisneros, Tran, Simon, Olszewski, and
Goodlander.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Okay. Before we begin with the hearing,
I have a few announcements I would like to make. First, I would
like to welcome, and he is in a meeting right now,
Representative Clay Fuller from the great State of Georgia to
our Committee. He previously served as district attorney for
the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and was appointed by
President Trump to serve as a White House fellow from 2018 to
2019. I am excited to hear the insight and perspective he will
contribute to this Committee on behalf of his constituents and
main street in the 14th Congressional District of the great
State of Georgia.
Next, for all of our members, there will be two Committee
roundtables in May for your information. The first is on May
4th in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. Representative Van
Duyne and I are excited to host all of you in the great State
of Texas for that. And the second roundtable is on May 22nd in
Baltimore, Maryland, home of the Big O, as they say,
Representative Olszewski. And you want a 30-second
advertisement on that and ask everybody to come?
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Please, everyone
come. We will try to replicate the amazing Fort Worth
experience in Baltimore. We would love to have you all.
Chairman WILLIAMS. There you go. Well, we are looking
forward to both those, so contact your Committee staff for
logistics and more information about those roundtables as the
date gets closer.
I now call the Committee on Small Business to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess
of the Committee at any time.
I now recognize myself for my opening statement.
Welcome to today's hearing, ``Independent Work, Real
Opportunity: The Gig Economy and the Future of
Entrepreneurship.'' The gig economy is broadly defined as an
economy in which people earn income by providing on-demand
work, services, or goods. Regardless of one's views on gig
entrepreneurship, the truth is that it has become an
increasingly large part of each of our everyday lives,
especially for younger generations.
Today, gig entrepreneurship takes as many forms as commonly
facilitated through digital platforms, like apps and websites.
Of course, ridesharing and delivery are major parts of the
ecosystem, but there are so many other industries that are part
of the gig economy. Some gig platforms are tailored towards
housework, handyman projects, running errands, or cleaning. At
the same time, other platforms cover the professional services
such as IT, graphic design, and other freelance work.
One reason people turn to the gig work is to gain
flexibility and control in their work schedules. Whether they
are a student, grandmother, or aspiring entrepreneur, they can
mold their gig work schedule to match their availability. The
gig economy supports American entrepreneurship by providing the
flexibility and the income needed to launch small businesses.
It also allows entrepreneurs to get started quickly by
leveraging a built-in customer base to kick-start their
businesses.
The motivations that lead people to gig work, such as
flexibility and self-ownership, also drive self-employment and
entrepreneurship. And in 2025, as much as 36 percent of the
U.S. workforce, or 70 million Americans, engaged in a gig of
freelance work, which generated roughly $1.5 trillion in annual
earnings, which is why it was so surprising that the Biden-
Harris administration launched an all-out attack on the gig
economy. Under the Biden-Harris administration, gig
entrepreneurs were threatened with IRS audits if they did not
report Venmo or PayPal payments over $600. And the Biden-Harris
Department of Labor issued rules that issued regulatory
complexity threatening to upend the gig economy altogether.
Thankfully, President Trump has reversed this decision and
changed the reporting threshold in the Work Families Tax Cuts
Act. And President Trump also boosted the gig economy in
American workers through no tax on tips. When small businesses
and entrepreneurs have the economy to shape their own work,
they are better positioned to learn--or to earn, build, and
succeed on their on their own terms, leading to a more
resilient American economy.
I want to thank our witnesses today for joining us and look
forward to the conversation ahead.
And I now recognize the distinguished member and my friend
Representative Velazquez for her opening remarks.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and
welcome to all the witnesses.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal told the story of a
small business owner who previously drove with a rideshare app
and now runs his own car service. Stories like his show how
digital platforms can reduce barriers to entry for
entrepreneurship by lowering upfront costs and providing an
avenue for connecting with clients. If it weren't for the
difficult business environment this administration has created,
this story would have been a great demonstration of how digital
platforms help build independent businesses.
Joe Biden is not in the White House. Donald Trump is. This
is his economy. He owns it. Unfortunately, his business is now
among the many American small businesses that are being hurt by
skyrocketing gas prices. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported a 21 percent increase in gas prices in March, the
largest 1-month increase since 1967. High energy costs caused
entirely by the President's illegal war in Iran are the main
reason that inflation tripled last month. Now that car service
owner is making about 40 percent less on each ride to the
airport. To make up for the lost income, he took on more trips.
To get better gas mileage, he bought a newer car. He will
likely have to increase his fares. He may even have to cut his
services for the elderly people he drives to doctor
appointments and grocery stores.
This damage to a successful entrepreneurial venture did not
have to happen. As the Committee has heard time and again, this
administration's bad policies have damaged America's small
businesses unnecessarily. With their income being eaten up by
the rapidly increased cost of living, gig workers and small
business owners are cutting back spending on things like
restaurant meals, along with many other Americans who have
reported increased concern over high prices. In fact, this
month, American consumer sentiment plummeted to its lowest
level ever since the survey started 74 years ago. The measures
sank across all groups, regardless of age, income, and
political party.
Consumers tightening their belts increases the financial
pressures faced by local businesses, especially restaurants. As
we will hear today, restaurants already operate on thin
margins. Those margins are even thinner now because the
President's tariffs raised the cost of everything from food to
textile containers.
Now the impacts of the President's war in Iran are rippling
through our supply chains. Higher fuel prices raise the cost of
transporting all goods, including food, and the impact is
already being felt in the broader economy. That means everyday
Americans are paying the price for this administration's
reckless decision whether they get their next meal through an
app, at a local restaurant, or from a grocery store.
For restaurant owners and their employees, rising prices
mean fewer orders and unsustainable financial institutions. For
communities, fewer restaurants mean less of the vibrant public
spaces those businesses provide. For all of us, it means fewer
opportunities to thrive, take risks, create new careers and
businesses, and support others in their entrepreneurial
ventures.
I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I will now introduce our witnesses. Our first witness is
Ms. Kristin Sharp. Ms. Sharp is the chief executive officer of
Flex Association, advancing policies that support a modern
flexible workforce. Before joining Flex, she was CEO of Jobs
for the Future's Education Quality Outcome Standards Board and
co-founded Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers, and
Technology, a project that examines the impact of AI on work.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Sharp worked on technology
innovation and national security policy in the U.S. Senate. She
earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the
University of Michigan and master's degree in political science
from Duke University.
Our next witness is Ms. Lisa Alvarez Acevedo. She is the
president and owner of Joyce Florist of Dallas, a locally-owned
small business serving customers across the Dallas, Texas,
area. Her daughter also went to TCU. And Ms. Alvarez Acevedo,
along with her mother Gloria, bought Joyce Florist in 1998.
Today, Joyce Florist of Dallas employs around 10 full-time and
part-time staff members and produces high-quality floral
arrangements and gifts, all while providing friendly, reliable
service to their community. Thank you for being here. And also,
you studied at Texas Women's University.
Our next witness is Ms. Elaine Buxton. Ms. Buxton serves as
president and chief executive officer of Confero Inc., a
national customer experience research and measurement firm. Ms.
Buxton, co-founded Confero in 1986. Confero Inc. helps business
improve customer service and performance through data-driven
insights and analytics. Ms. Buxton serves on the board of
directors for the Better Business Bureau of East North Carolina
and the U.S. Chamber of Small Business Council. She earned a
bachelor's of science degree in business administration from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of
business administration from Meredith College.
I now recognize the Ranking Member from New York, Ms.
Velazquez, to briefly introduce our last witness appearing
before us today.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Rosa Thurnher is an Atlanta-based entrepreneur, mother, and
owner of El Ponce and Tiendita, and partner in Bar ANA. Her
career spans over two decades of building community-focused
hospitality concepts rooted in culture and connection. A
graduate of the James Beard Foundation's Women's
Entrepreneurial Leadership Program and board member of the
Independent Restaurant Coalition, she is a passionate advocate
for the hospitality community. Rosa began her hospitality
journey with El Bar, and today that same space is home to Bar
ANA, where she is a partner supporting the next generation of
entrepreneurs by creating space and opportunity.
Rosa's dedication extends beyond her business ventures. She
is deeply committed to empowering women and the Latino
community and fighting for environmental sustainability and
human rights. Her goals center around building a more
sustainable and equitable future for generations to come.
Welcome, Ms. Thurnher. Thank you for being here.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Okay. Thank you again to all of our
witnesses.
And before recognizing the witnesses, I would like to
remind them that their oral testimony is restricted to 5
minutes in length. That is an important number around here. It
is not 6, it is not 4, it is 5. And if you see the light turn
red in front of you, it means your 5 minutes have concluded and
you should wrap up your testimony. And if you keep going, you
will hear this. That means it is over with, okay? But you will
do fine.
I now recognize Ms. Kristin Sharp for her 5-minute opening
remarks.
STATEMENTS OF MS. KRISTIN SHARP, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, FLEX
ASSOCIATION; MS. LISA ALVAREZ ACEVEDO, PRESIDENT, JOYCE FLORIST
OF DALLAS; MS. ELAINE BUXTON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, CONFERO, INC.; AND MS. ROSA THURNHER, OWNER, AZTEC
TRAVEL INC DBA EL PONCE
STATEMENT OF KRISTIN SHARP, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, FLEX
ASSOCIATION
Ms. SHARP. Chairman Williams, Ranking Member Velazquez, and
distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to appear here today. My name is Kristin Sharp and
I am the CEO of the Flex Association. Flex represents America's
leading rideshare and delivery platforms and the people who
count on them.
Across dozens of platforms, from mobility to freelance to
creative marketplaces, millions of Americans are earning,
shopping, and building businesses through technologies that
simply didn't exist a generation ago. In 2024, the app-based
industry contributed more than $212 billion to the U.S.
economy. For consumers, the platform industry has delivered
savings, access, and convenience. For workers, it is a powerful
opportunity to be your own boss with real control over your
time and money. And for the restaurants and local businesses
deliveries come from, it expands markets and reaches new
customers.
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy
and app-based platforms have been one of the most powerful
tools they have. The marketplaces connect small businesses to
digital customers and help them compete with bigger firms by
providing critical support, on-demand workers, logistics,
digital payments, targeted marketing tools. And as a result,
millions of American businesses have modernized how they
operate and found new pathways to scale.
Nearly two-thirds of customers have used an app-based
platform for grocery delivery, 60 percent for package delivery,
and the average American now takes rideshare 16 times per year.
These aren't abstract statistics. They represent real customers
walking through digital doors of businesses that they might not
otherwise have reached.
The scale of the app-based industry has provided millions
of Americans with an essential lifeline to navigate financial
uncertainty. Digital platforms offer immediate flexible
income--no lengthy hiring process, no restrictions on the
number of platforms one uses, just a smartphone, an idea, and
the ability to start earning immediately. For parents,
students, workers between jobs, this flexibility fills gaps
that traditional employment can't. Nearly 9 in 10 workers with
children say app-based work makes it easier to balance family
and work, and 69 percent say that it has helped them earn money
in an emergency, In an unpredictable labor market, on-demand
earning provides real-time stability.
But here is something that rarely gets mentioned: app-based
work is quietly one of the most powerful engines of
entrepreneurship in the American economy today. It helps
workers practice skills like multitasking and evaluating new
opportunities. It helps them accrue startup capital to launch
an idea or business. And it creates the confidence to take
risks by being a ready supply of temporary income while getting
a business up and running or riding out a slow period. That's
why a recent study of U.S. tax records found that app-based
workers start new companies at more than three times the rate
of the general working age population and why those businesses
generate 39 percent higher gross profits in the first year than
those started by the general population.
It is opening doors for people who have historically been
locked out of entrepreneurship: younger workers, low-income
workers, veterans, and those taking care of children or elderly
parents. So when someone drives through Uber or delivers
through DoorDash or shops with Instacart, they may not be
making ends meet. They may be developing the skills that they
need to start succeeding in business.
So what do we ask of policymakers? Reflect reality. There
is encouraging progress on this front. Last year Congress
passed the No Tax on Tips Initiative, ensuring that tipped app-
based workers pay lower taxes. The Flex Association also
applauds the Department of Labor's decision to propose
commonsense pro worker classification rules. This rule helps
preserve the flexible independent work model that underpins the
app-based economy that millions of Americans rely on today.
The modern labor market is defined by constant change.
Workers, especially younger ones, get this. Last year, more
than half of millennial and Gen Z Americans earned money
outside a primary job, often as a solo entrepreneur with many
income streams. So protect that flexibility. Don't shoehorn
independent workers into conventional employment against their
wishes and strip away the flexibility they've chosen.
We support the Small Business Administration's efforts to
track and streamline regulatory requirements for independent
workers, and we would be pleased to work with the SBA to
strengthen education around tax filings, digital business
formation, and income growth for solo entrepreneurs.
The nature of work is changing, but it brings so much
opportunity. If we want an economy that works for today's small
businesses, we should support the systems that people are
already relying on to build them. App-based work is a key piece
of that puzzle.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Lisa Alvarez Acevedo for her 5-minute
opening remarks.
STATEMENT OF LISA ALVAREZ ACEVEDO, PRESIDENT, JOYCE FLORIST OF
DALLAS
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Chairman, Ranking Member, and
distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today. My name is Lisa Alvarez Acevedo
and I am the owner of Joyce Florist of Dallas, a Dallas-based
company.
When I purchased Joyce Florist 28 years ago, I had a dream
of creating a family business that would allow me to support my
family and spend time with them. That dream is now a reality. I
can proudly say that Joyce Florist is a four-generation family
business which started with my mother and I working alongside
one another. When my mother retired, my daughter Alyssa stepped
in to work with me. Even my grandchildren pitch in and carrying
the family legacy forward. I am proud to say that today Joyce
Florist employs 10 full-time and part-time staff members and
remains deeply connected to our local community in Dallas.
Starting a business is hard enough between permits,
paperwork, and all the costs that come with operating a
business. Platforms like DoorDash make that path a little
easier by giving entrepreneurs tools to reach a broad base of
customers. Entrepreneurship gave me the freedom to build
something on my own terms and platforms like DoorDash are
making that path more accessible for the next generation of
small business owners.
For years, Joyce Florist relied on traditional wire
services to handle deliveries, but they did not meet our
business' real needs. Two years ago, we partnered with DoorDash
and the experience has been remarkable. While Joyce Florist has
long been a neighborhood institution, DoorDash is helping the
business evolve and grow in meaningful ways. DoorDash helped
our small business reach more customers and keep local dollars
moving through our community. Staff no longer have to
coordinate deliveries. This eliminates complexity and saves
thousands of dollars in overhead.
Our partnership with DoorDash lets my team focus on what we
do best, creating beautiful arrangements and serving our
customers. During peak periods, like Valentine's Day or
Mother's Day, this efficiency is especially valuable. We can
relocate team members in-store and customers and order
fulfillment during the rush rather than trying to have them all
deliver and work with logistics.
DoorDash also introduced us to an entirely new customer
base. Even after decades in business, people are still
discovering Joyce Florist for the first time through the
platform. In 2025, Joyce Florist made over 60,000 in sales on
the DoorDash Marketplace. My experience is not unique.
According to DoorDash, 88 percent of merchants say the platform
has helped them reach new customers they otherwise would not
have been able to access. And U.S.-based merchants collectively
made over 40 billion in sales on DoorDash Marketplace in 2024.
Dashers themselves have played a role in that growth. Many
have told us they discovered our shop and event center through
deliveries and later returned as customers. We have built
strong relationships with Dashers, welcoming them and even
offering treats for their children when they bring them in.
Platforms like DoorDash are strengthening mainstream. They
give small business like mine the tools to compete, to grow,
and to stay rooted in the communities we serve. Joyce Florist
thrives by blending tradition, initiative and entrepreneurship.
DoorDash is the latest chapter in that story.
I want my grandchildren to inherit a business and an
economy where entrepreneurs have every tool to thrive. Small
business owners like me already face enough cost and regulatory
complexities to keep our doors open. The tools that help us
save time and serve customers better should not be made harder
to use. Instead, they should be encouraged.
I thank the Committee for encouraging policies that allow
small business and platform partners to continue working for
the benefit of our communities.
Thank you for your time. I am happy to answer any
questions.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Elaine Buxton for her 5-minute opening
remarks.
STATEMENT OF ELAINE BUXTON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, CONFERO INC.
Ms. BUXTON. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of the
Committee, thank you so much for the opportunity to tell my
story here today. My name is Elaine Buxton and I am president
and CEO of Confero, which is a customer experience research
company. We are based in Cary, North Carolina.
My company has been in business since 1986, helping clients
improve customer experience, compliance, and their own
operations. I am here to share a simple small business
perspective. App-based platforms and digital tools have made it
much easier for companies like mine to find the right support,
expand when needed, and serve clients without taking on fixed
cost before the business is there.
Long before people used the phrase ``gig economy,'' my
company was already coordinating projects across many markets.
Back then that meant telephone, landline, paper forms, mailed
reports, and a lot of manual work. Our projects vary by client,
location, timing, urgency, and complexity, so that was very
hard to manage. Today, digital platforms help us manage that
work more efficiently.
Over nearly four decades, my company has stayed competitive
by adapting to new technology, changing client needs, and new
ways of doing research. These tools also help level the playing
field by giving small businesses access to reach and
capabilities that used to require a much larger organization.
In my company, these platforms serve more than one kind of
need. They help us find project-based support in different
markets, connect with research participants when appropriate,
and access specialized help, like graphic design, digital
marketing, research, editing, data analysis, and fractional
finance support. And for companies like mine, this really
matters. If small businesses lose access to lawful, flexible
arrangements, we will face higher costs, less agility, less
reach, and fewer chances to grow.
In some kinds of research, flexibility is not just about
cost, it is about what makes the work even possible. For
example, imagine a restaurant chain rolling out a new menu item
and they want to know quickly whether customers in different
places are getting it prepared and served the same way all
across their units. That may mean a brief one-time visit in
many locations. It would not make sense for a small business to
hire employees all over the country for a task that may take
only a few minutes and may only happen once.
In my experience, these platforms do five practical things
for my business. They help us find talent and research
participants. They help us move faster when opportunities come
up. They help us control costs by bringing in support only when
we need it. They help us compete with larger companies. And
they support entrepreneurship more broadly.
I also want to be clear that flexibility works best when it
comes with responsibility. People should know what the
opportunity is, what it pays, what is expected, and when it
will be paid. Companies using these tools should be transparent
and should protect against fraud and abuse. I support clear,
practical rules that small businesses can understand and follow
without gray areas, without pages of legal interpretation, and
without needing a lawyer just to know what the rules mean.
From my perspective as a small business owner, the real
question is not whether every person should fit into one single
model. The real question is whether policy will leave room for
lawful, flexible arrangements that work for both small
businesses and the people who choose to engage with them while
still keeping the rules clear and understandable.
I also want to say how grateful I am to the SBA. I would
like to take a moment to thank you for helping get my company
through COVID. As you can imagine, most of our clients have
customer-facing locations and as they were closing up, we got a
lot of emails saying we have to stop doing research. We don't
have any customers right now, we have to stop doing research. I
lost 80 percent of my revenue in 10 days and I can't tell you
how helpful it was to have COVID relief, EIDL loans, PPP, all
the things that the SBA helped to usher in to keep us going and
to encourage us to try to stay in business. And now that we
have come out of COVID and we are growing again and our clients
are growing again, the SBA enabled a competitive working
capital loan for us while we are growing again. So I would just
like to especially thank the SBA for that.
For small businesses, app-based platforms are not a luxury.
They are practical tools that help us grow, compete, and adapt.
Preserving room for lawful, flexible arrangements while
promoting clear rules and responsible practices will help more
small businesses succeed.
Thank you so much.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Rosa Thurnher for her 5-minute opening
remarks.
STATEMENT OF ROSA THURNHER, OWNER, AZTEC TRAVEL INC. DBA EL
PONCE ON BEHALF OF THE INDEPENDENT RESTAURANT COALITION
Ms. THURNHER. Thank you, Chairman Williams, Ranking Member
Velazquez, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify. My name is Rosa Thurnher. I own El
Ponce Mexican Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, and I am a proud
board member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition
representing more than 500,000 independent restaurants and bars
across the country.
I am here to talk about the delivery marketplace as that is
what pertains to my business strongly. There are three core
problems for independent restaurants. First, the costs are very
high, too high and unpredictable. Second, we have lost control
of our customer relationships. And third, the system is not
transparent or competitive and the data that drives it is not
shared with the businesses that depend on it.
Those three things together are putting independent
restaurants in a very fragile position. Restaurants like mine
operate on margins of 4 to 6 percent in the best of times.
Today, every major cost is up food, fuel, labor, rent,
insurance, and credit card fees. And on top of that, delivery
platform fees can reach as high as 30 percent. That is not a
small pressure. It fundamentally changes whether a restaurant
can survive. So we are forced into impossible decisions: raise
prices and risk losing customers or absorb the cost and erode
our businesses. Across the country, operators are shrinking
portions, changing menus, and stretching staff, not because we
want to, but because we are trying to stay open.
At the same time, we have lost control over one of the most
important parts of our business, our customers. When someone
orders through a delivery app, I don't know who they are. I
can't contact them if something goes wrong, I can't invite them
back, and I can't build loyalty. The platform owns that
relationship, not the restaurant. In today's economy, data is
currency, and that data is being withheld from the very
businesses creating the value. Without access to our own
customer data, we can't build relationships, make informed
decisions, or compete on a level playing field.
And then there is visibility. Whether a customer sees my
restaurant often depends on whether I am paying for promotions,
offering discounts, or meeting performance metrics that I don't
fully control. When I stopped paying for advertising, my sales
dropped, not because demand disappeared, but because I was no
longer being shown to customers. That is not a level playing
field. It is a system where access to your own customers is
conditional.
There are also real operational consequences. Drivers are
often working across multiple apps at once, which leads to
delays and poor customer experiences. When food arrives late or
in poor condition, the customer blames the restaurant even
though we don't control the delivery. And many of us are
dealing with unauthorized listings, menu scraping, and misuse
of our brands online. These are issues we didn't agree to and
cannot easily fix.
Meanwhile, this is a rapidly growing market worth tens of
billions of dollars. But independent restaurants are not
sharing fairly in that growth. Instead, we are absorbing more
cost while a small number of platforms gain more control. That
is why transparency matters.
Recently, the FTC announced it is exploring a potential
rulemaking on delivery fee transparency. From where I sit, that
is long overdue. Right now, we are navigating complex and
constantly shifting fees without clear disclosure or real
leverage. It makes it extremely difficult to plan, to price or
to understand what we are actually paying. The Independent
Restaurant Coalition strongly supports this effort and will be
submitting comments. Delivery can and should be a part of a
healthy restaurant ecosystem, but only if the marketplace is
fair, transparent, and competitive.
Independent restaurants are one of the largest employers in
the country. But more than that, we are deeply rooted in our
communities. When you spend money at an independent restaurant,
that money stays local. It supports workers, farmers, and small
businesses nearby. That is very different from a system where
more and more value is extracted out of communities and
consolidated into a handful of large technology platforms.
Restaurants are also more than places to eat. We are
gathering spaces. We are part of the cultural fabric of our
neighborhoods. And in moments of crisis, whether it is a
pandemic, a natural disaster, or a community need, restaurants
are often among the first to step up and serve. But those
contributions depend on businesses that can actually sustain
themselves. Right now, too many cannot.
Thank you for having me and I look forward to your
questions.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
Now we move to the member questions under the 5-minute
rule.
Ms. Sharp, in this Committee we have had time and time
again, we have heard time and time again about how overly
burdensome regulations constrain small businesses. These same
regulations created red tape that limits individuals'
opportunities turn flexible income, particularly for gig and
platform and entrepreneurs. The Trump administration has
prioritized removing these barriers, including changes to the
independent contractor definition, no better support gig and
platform-based entrepreneurs. Further, President Trump's
working families tax cuts are bringing more money back into
Americans' pockets.
So my question from your point of view, how have the policy
changes like this directly benefited gig entrepreneurs and the
platforms that support them?
Ms. SHARP. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The changes to the
Department of Labor rule is welcome news for independent
workers. And Flex supported this commonsense change largely
because it streamlined the complicated and multifactor test of
the previous administration into one that was clear and simple
for both businesses and workers to understand.
There has been quite a bit independent research about the
changes that California had, which were some of the most
stringent in the nation, about worker classification. And the
research showed that after California required more people to
be classified as employees, total income for independent
workers dropped by 10 percent without a corresponding increase
in traditional employment. And so there is very clear evidence
that it hinders the ability to work flexibly in the way that is
so crucial and important to this population of workers.
We do see through survey data that independent workers
prefer to be independent contractors by overwhelming margins,
somewhere between 77 and 85 percent at various times. And 90
percent of app-based workers choose the work specifically
because of the flexibility. So we are very grateful to the
Department of Labor for its new rule and thinking through what
will be--what will help workers feel like they are supported
and not have the rug pulled out from under them.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Ms. Alvarez Acevedo, small businesses
often face challenges when it comes to hiring, managing costs,
and scaling up operations. Many of you touched on that and the
gig economy and the use of apps-based platforms over an
alternative providing flexible demands and access to talent.
Now, based on your experience, how has using the gig economy
through DoorDash helped Joyce Florist adapt to the changing
needs of the business?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Well, for--thank you, Mr. Chairman.
For us in particular, it has really helped us. It has really
helped grow us. It helps us get our deliveries out in a quicker
timeframe. And we also have the opportunity to continue to
bring in a new customer base because we have new people using
the app that didn't know us before. And so it really is
important to have our Dashers because they are able to come in,
pick up those arrangements, and get them there within the hour,
usually within about 30 minutes, opposed to us routing those
deliveries and getting them out, which takes half a day because
we have several going out at the same time. And so using
DoorDash, we are able to get those out immediately.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Okay, thank you.
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Ms. Buxton, throughout our nation's
history, small businesses have grown by adapting to change and
finding new ways to compete. And today, the gig economy
continues to transform how small businesses and entrepreneurs
operate as a whole. So my question is, as someone who is
successfully adapting to this shift, can you describe how your
business has embraced gig entrepreneurs and the impact that it
has had on your operations and your growth?
Ms. BUXTON. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
the question.
The gig economy has helped our growth because we are a
small business, but we serve large companies. A lot of large
companies want to work with small business because we are
nimble, we have new ideas, we innovate, but a lot of times we
don't have access to all of the people that are needed. So we
have been able to grow by using various consultants, fractional
CFO. We can bring on a project manager for a project that we
only need for a couple of weeks.
So now, for example, instead of having to do work for a
client all year round, we can do work for them for 2 weeks for
a quick in-and-out type of project, which is really very
helpful to our clients and it has helped us grow our business.
We would not have been able to make those investments in
employees in advance without having the projects coming in. So
the gig economy has really helped us get access to
capabilities.
Chairman WILLIAMS. Thank you. And my time is up.
And I now recognize Mr. McGarvey from the great State of
Kentucky for 5 minutes.
Mr. MCGARVEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, appreciate that.
And Ms. Sharp, I am going to start with you. You know,
obviously, in my home State of Kentucky, there is a lot of
people who use the gig economy and use it to have meaningful
employment careers and opportunities that they enjoy. I was
looking at some of your information for your company and my
question is, I am curious, what percentage of the gig workers
are full-time? Not necessarily like 40 hours a week for Uber or
DoorDash or whatever app is their main source of income, but
what does that full-time worker look like?
Ms. SHARP. Thank you, Congressman. That is a great
question.
We see through extensive survey data and conversations with
workers that about 80 percent of workers work fewer than 20
hours per week, 65 percent work fewer than 10 hours per week.
The average tends to be between 8 and 10 hours per week. And we
see that people are often combining multiple different income
streams and using this income to sort of reinvest in other
businesses or think about developing the entrepreneurial skills
that they will need in other contexts. We often see people who
have a traditional full-time job and also are augmenting their
income or they are supporting something----
Mr. MCGARVEY. That is what I have seen. And so it is about
20 percent.
Ms. SHARP. Twenty percent work 20 or more hours per week.
Mr. MCGARVEY. Right.
Ms. SHARP. But even that is not--of that 20 percent, it
isn't all full-time.
Mr. MCGARVEY. Yeah. So we are about 20 percent. And do you
know what percentage of those full-time gig workers have health
insurance? Do you keep that kind of information about your
workforce?
Ms. SHARP. Yes, to some extent. It is a variable workforce
by definition. This is a workforce that is often transitional
and jumping in and out of doing independent work.
Mr. MCGARVEY. Ballpark figure.
Ms. SHARP. Ballpark is a little over 50 percent, though,
again, that fluctuates. We often see people who are working in
this industry that have spouses that have a traditional job
that also have other sources of income besides their gig
income. And so it does differ.
Mr. MCGARVEY. And that is what I am getting at is, right,
if you have got about 50 percent who have health insurance,
they might be on Medicare, they might have a spouse who has
health insurance----
Ms. SHARP. Veterans benefits, et cetera.
Mr. MCGARVEY. Right. So totally understand that. But then
for anybody else, not a veteran, not having a spouse, not
having Medicare, there is basically only two options, right?
They can go and they can apply for Medicaid or they can go to
the ACA Marketplace. And I think this is one of my big fears,
especially what we see in my home State of Kentucky right now.
In the One Big, Beautiful Bill that cut a trillion dollars to
Medicaid, largest cut to Medicaid in our country's history, the
Kentucky Hospital Association has already predicted the impact
is going to be massive. Thirty-five rural hospitals are going
to close. It is going to impact every community, urban and
rural.
And it is not just that, though. There is kind of--there is
a double hit here. There is the cut to Medicaid directly and
then there is letting the ACA tax credits expire. I have talked
to so many people and we have been on the phone with people who
are in tears telling us their stories. One of the people I
talked to, a woman named Ann, she and her husband, both
independent contractors, all right, they have the ACA to keep
herself and her family, her 19-year-old disabled son afloat.
But when I spoke with her, she said that the ACA expired, that
her tax--her premiums are going to go from $350 a month to
$1,275.69 per month. Talked to another couple, again, in the
gig economy. They are paying 625 per month before the tax
credits expired. Now those premiums are going to $2,501 per
month.
And this is the kind of thing, if we want to have a gig
economy, if we want to let people actually go out and have
these sources of work where they can make income, but we are
cutting their ability to have medical care and health
insurance, then we are making it--not we, the President,
President Trump is making it harder to get by. And the problem
is he doesn't seem to care.
Just the other day he said, and this is a, quote, ``It is
not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid,
Medicare, and all those individual things at the federal level
because,'' quote, ``we are fighting for wars.'' That is a
choice he is making. When he comes to us and asks for $500
billion to appear out of thin air, but people don't have
healthcare and people don't have childcare and people don't
have the supports they need in their jobs, that is the problem.
And it is going to affect people in the very gig economy that
you are talking about today.
Ms. Buxton, in the little time I have left, I have seen
reports that the hours worked on gig platforms increased in
2025 as the job market cooled off. Have you seen any increase
in registrations for work on your platform?
Ms. BUXTON. Well, we use multiple platforms to find people
to do research because it is very specialized. We may need
people that have participated, that use a particular brand or
like to go to a particular store or any of those sorts of
things. So we have to use multiple platforms. We have seen an
increase in interest since the pandemic because people went
home, worked from home, and they had a lot of flexibility and
now they are searching for that.
Mr. MCGARVEY. And my time has expired. Appreciate that. We
didn't get to talk about tariffs, which I know are also
impacting all of your drivers. If people can't--if businesses
can't afford food and people can't afford that food, then they
are not going to go pick it up.
Appreciate it and yield back.
Ms. KING-HINDS. [Presiding.] I now recognize Mr. Alford
from Missouri for 5 minutes.
Mr. ALFORD. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Chairman
Williams and Ranking Member Velazquez.
This Committee exists to champion main street. We say it
over and over again. I hope it is going to sink through because
this is why we are here today. We are discussing one of the
fastest growing drivers of entrepreneurship in our economy, the
gig economy. It is often misunderstood. It is not just
ridesharing or delivery services. It includes freelancers,
online sellers, independent contractors, and small business
owners across nearly every spectrum and sector of our economy.
And at its core, the gig economy is about opportunity. It
allows Americans to earn income, build skills, start businesses
without the traditional barriers of high startup costs or rigid
work schedules.
For many, it is a first step towards entrepreneurship. And
gig work gives individuals the ability to test ideas, build a
customer base, generate income while they develop their own
businesses. And that kind of flexibility is especially
important for young entrepreneurs, parents, and those
transitioning between careers.
I have three grown children and two of them are heavily
involved in the gig economy. They are supporting, self-
sufficiently, I might add, which is great as a parent to see
them thrive in the gig economy. We are seeing the impact.
Millions of Americans are now participating. This is not
replacing the traditional workforce. It is transforming it. It
is creating a system that by which individuals have more
control over their time, their income, their future. And I am
encouraged that policies under the Trump administration have
supported this growth by reducing regulatory burdens, by
clarifying independent contractor status, and by ensuring that
gig workers can keep more of what they earn.
But we need to make sure that this momentum continues.
Congress should be focused on preserving flexibility, reducing
unnecessary red tape, and making sure that digital platforms
remain a pathway to opportunity rather than presenting
barriers. At the end of the day, the gig economy is not just
how people work. It is about how people build something of
their own.
Ms. Buxton, I am a former realtor, and I am well aware that
many of our friends on the left somehow consider independent
contractors such as realtors, my wife is a realtor, my oldest
son is a realtor, but some see that as exploitative, that they
want to throw up roadblocks to make everyone a W-2 employee.
For one thing, it would be easier to unionize those employees.
Can you talk about any issues that you have had with the
restrictive laws around independent contractors?
Ms. BUXTON. Yes. My company conducts research all over the
U.S. and so there is the federal law and then 50 other
different labor laws in each state, and they are not consistent
with each other. Particularly there is one called the ABC test,
where the B portion of determining if someone is an independent
contractor has to do with is the contractor providing something
that is integral to your business? Well, research is integral
to my business, and I need to engage research respondents to be
part of the research. But, you know, if they are integral, am I
not operating correctly?
I think what happens is the policies are intended for
larger, different kinds of organizations in the gig economy and
not for companies like mine. Or like I engaged a pet sitter
through Rover to take care of my pet while I am here. I don't
think those kinds of rules were built for smaller type
platforms. I think everything is directed at the larger ones.
Mr. ALFORD. Thank you for that answer.
Ms. Alvarez Acevedo, when Joyce Florist started, you did
not have access to the DoorDash or other delivery apps. How has
access to these new apps contributed to the growth of your
business?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you for your question. Our very
first year with DoorDash, we grew 10 percent/. Ourselves, grew
10 percent. And they are growing over and over every year as we
continue to work with them. It has definitely been a wonderful
opportunity for us. Even in commissions, it is a lower cost
that we pay opposed to wire services that we have used in the
past, and our deliveries get there much quicker.
Mr. ALFORD. Thank you very much. I am out of time.
Appreciate you coming here on your own time, your own dime to
make America great again through small businesses, the fabric
of America.
And with that, Madam Chair, I yield back.
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you.
Ms. KING-HINDS. Thank you.
I now recognize Mrs. McIver from New Jersey for 5 minutes.
Mrs. MCIVER. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and thank you
to our Ranking Member for holding this hearing today. I want to
thank each of our witnesses for traveling here today and being
with us today, especially on a cold day.
Many people say the gig economy gives workers flexibility
and a chance to be their own boss. But for a lot of modern
workers and small businesses things look really different right
now. Right now, just a handful of large food delivery platforms
control who gets work, customers, and income. As a result,
small restaurant owners are being squeezed and workers have few
protections and not much power to negotiate.
My district, New Jersey's 10th Congressional District, is
home to more than 1,000 restaurants and thousands of gig
workers. They depend on food delivery platforms to continue to
have a thriving business, find customers, and put food on their
own tables. If we want to support entrepreneurship and economic
mobility, we must make sure the gig economy works for everyone,
not just a few. That includes not just the platforms, but also
the workers and small businesses who keep it going.
With that, Ms. Thurnher, I would love to turn to you. Thank
you so much for your testimony. Just want to give you a few--a
little bit of opportunity to expand on some of the things you
talked about in your opening statement.
One, you mentioned in your testimony that delivery drivers
often work for several food delivery apps just to get by. What
does this suggest about whether gig workers can earn a steady,
livable wage in this system?
Ms. THURNHER. Thank you for the question. I can't
necessarily speak for drivers, but I can say my experience as
an operator, when I see a driver come in and pick up two
different orders from two different platforms, often they will
be flagged to wait for another order, that is going to delay
the quality of the first order. It lets me know that they are
juggling this because they have to. That is an assumption on my
part, but I see it over and over again that they have the two
signs in their car window that they are driving for both. They
are juggling orders.
And I think that a lot of the drivers that we encounter
have very different levels of experience. I can say that from a
restaurant point of view, I think that there should be a little
bit more screening, a lot more training. You are dealing with
food. We have a lot of regulation on restaurants because we
can--it can be dangerous to feed people. You have to know what
you are doing, and I think that that should also go for the
apps.
Mrs. MCIVER. Yeah, thank you for that. We have heard
concerns about the concentration of market power among a few
dominant delivery apps, obviously. Based on your experience,
how does having only a few major platforms affect your ability
to run your business?
Ms. THURNHER. It is a huge obstacle for us, mainly because
we are competing against them for our own delivery. During
COVID obviously, everything went outside of our doors and we
signed up with platforms that we would never have signed up
with. So at one point, we were on four apps; we still are, but
those are integrated into our point of sale, which makes it
easier. But four iPads, four printers, and then those apps are
getting consolidated. So, for instance, I have never signed up
with Postmates, but my restaurant is listed on Postmates
because Uber has bought them.
I think that there is just not transparency. The customers
don't know that I am not dealing directly with some people. So
I think the transparency is not there. I don't have the ability
to contact my customers. I don't have the ability to mitigate
when things go wrong. And for us, joining the apps, originally
pre-COVID was for marketing to reach new people. And at that
point it was about 5 percent of my business. And currently it
is now 20 percent of my revenue. And if I cut those ties, then
I lose a large share of my revenue every month.
Mrs. MCIVER. Yeah. As these platforms have become more
powerful over the time, have you seen any way different that
they treat small businesses?
Ms. THURNHER. I think they know that we are stuck in a
pattern with them. I think that they have huge marketing
budgets, which we all pay for. So, you know, when I see the
Super Bowl ad with a celebrity, it actually hurts me because I
think small businesses are hurting. As far as I know,
restaurants are in worse shape than during COVID.
Mrs. MCIVER. Yeah.
Ms. THURNHER. And so right now we could really use
platforms that call us partners to act like partners.
Mrs. MCIVER. That is true. Yes. Thank you so much for that.
With that, I yield back my time, Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. [Presiding.] The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Ms. King-Hinds from the great Northern
Mariana Islands for 5 minutes.
Ms. KING-HINDS. So I am from the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands. And sometimes these conversations
with regards to policy and opportunities are very interesting
to me. I come from a place where there is very limited
opportunities and people right now are struggling to even have
any types of income. We don't have much of a gig economy to
speak of.
And, you know, one of the challenges is that we still live
in a place where direction--we don't have physical addresses
and so having online platforms like this is a challenge. Most
people give directions like, hey, go down two streets, make a
right at the coconut tree. You see that yellow house? You know,
and so it is hard to have these types of platforms. Right?
And we do have young entrepreneurs. One, his name is
Cameron Atelik, who is trying to develop an app. And I, you
know, want this to be an opportunity to encourage somebody like
him to focus on figuring out how we break into this new
industry.
And so this question is for you, Ms. Sharp. How do digital
platforms help reduce barriers to entry such as capital
requirements, access to customers, or other administrative
burdens for aspiring entrepreneurs? And in what ways do they
support small businesses beyond just providing delivery or
logistics for services? I want him to hear this so that he can
be encouraged to focus on and hopefully create this type of
industry back home.
Ms. SHARP. Thank you for that question, Congresswoman. I
think that you have hit on a couple different really important
things. The first and foremost is that generationally, we are
seeing younger people embrace digital platforms and digital
work to learn entrepreneurship skills so enthusiastically. So
the fact that you have constituents who are doing that doesn't
surprise me.
There are three basic ways that digital platforms support
entrepreneurship. The first is experimentation. Through a
platform you are able to try out multiple different kinds of
work. You can jump on and off at your leisure and work whenever
and wherever you want to, often around other kinds of work. So
that is one.
Secondly, it provides a ready, easy on ramp to earn money
immediately. There is no waiting, there is no application,
there is no 2 weeks before you hear back from a potential boss.
You are the boss and so you learn how to operate in that sense.
It used to be many years ago in this country that people's
first jobs, often in the service industry, were things where
you learned about the chain of command. And now we see people
learning how to be their own bosses and how to, you know, do
things, like multitasking and evaluating the cost-benefit of
working with or through different platforms. And those skills
of entrepreneurship are so critically important.
And then finally, it decreases risk in starting a business
if you have ready fallback income. And that has been crucially
important for people as well.
Ms. KING-HINDS. So I hear you and Ms. Buxton give out
statistics and just being industry subject matter experts. And
so given that the CNMI is heavily dependent on the tourism
industry, I wanted to hear what your thoughts are or any data
that you have or experience with regards to areas that rely on
tourism--that are tourism-dependent, right, and how--I want to
hear about how the gig economy platforms adapt to seasonal or
tourism industry different demand patterns.
Ms. BUXTON. For me?
Ms. KING-HINDS. Either, both.
Ms. BUXTON. Well, an example for my business right now is
that we work for a very large amusement park organization that
is only open in the summer. So we can only conduct research and
only need to conduct research over a few weeks' period of time.
So on our end of things, we need to find people who are
interested in going and who would enjoy going.
From the point of view of the person who took on this
project, they would get a free day in the park. They could take
their kids. They can enjoy it and it is something they do
because they want to, not because they had to, and it gets us
access to consumers. They are actually engaging with a product
or a place that really value being able to go there. So the
ability to scale projects like that or to conduct projects in a
short period of time is only possible because of the apps.
Ms. SHARP. Yeah. And I think the same that, in my 8 seconds
left, the ability to scale up and down quickly and meet demand
as demand changes is really important.
Ms. KING-HINDS. Thank you. I yield back, Mr. Chair.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Cisneros in the great State of
California for 5 minutes.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank all our
witnesses for being here today.
Look, my Republican colleagues and this administration
continue to talk about how great everything is, how great they
are doing. But I disagree. Things aren't that great. The
economic decisions from this administration are increasing
costs and making life harder for working Americans. There is
widespread uncertainty among small businesses. Last month the
Consumer Price Index spiked at 3.3 percent. Year over year
consumer sentiment is at a record low. Small business
bankruptcies are up 67 percent. The Fed's Beige Book from last
week saw shrinking margins and energy and fuel costs sharply
rising. Prices are going up due to tariffs and insurance
premiums and healthcare costs are skyrocketing.
The White House staged a photo op with a DoorDash grandma
to tout the so-called wins. But she is hard at work and has a
GoFundMe now to cover her husband's medical expenses for cancer
treatments. She shouldn't have to make over 14,000 deliveries
for her family to afford healthcare. But this administration
made historic cuts to healthcare and they are about to double
down on the next reconciliation package to cut healthcare even
further. They are looking for ways to pay for an unpopular war
and for immigration enforcement that also hurts our labor
market and small businesses. And even more jarring is the
president's budget hurts cancer research funding.
When you look at the gig economy, half of the participants
join to earn extra income. Involuntary part-time work or
workers who want full-time work but are not given full-time
hours are the highest participants in the gig economy. Twenty
percent of those who took a pay cut, reduced hours, or lost
their jobs have turned to gig work. So a large portion of folks
are not turning to gig work out of choice, but out of
necessity, only to make roughly 50 to 65 percent of what they
would make in traditional rules. And on top of that, they are
being squeezed by tariffs, gas and energy prices, inflation,
and increasing healthcare costs. The gig economy can be great
for some, but in the current economic reality, people are
hurting.
So with that, Ms. Acevedo, over 80 percent of all cut
flowers sold in the United States are imported. In 2025, that
was $2.26 billion in imports. What impact did the tariffs have
on the floral industry and on your business?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you for your question. Like all
companies, we are navigating the tariff landscape, and we have
seen the value in our partnership with DoorDash because we are
able to reach more customers. So focusing on designing
beautiful flowers is staying our focus.
Mr. CISNEROS. But have your costs risen? Has the cost of
flowers risen?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Yes, they have.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you.
Ms. Thurnher, what was the impact of tariffs on restaurant
industry and on your business?
Ms. THURNHER. Thank you for the question. As an owner of a
Mexican restaurant, pretty much across the board: tomatoes,
avocados, chiles, masa from corn, that is heirloom from Mexico,
tequila, mezcal, limes. Pretty much everything I sell has
increased. I would say our bottom line costs are 35 percent
higher than they were 3 years ago.
Mr. CISNEROS. And so you have had to raise your prices as
well?
Ms. THURNHER. We have had to raise prices. We have had to
cut items from our menu. We have biweekly meetings to look at
what is selling and what is not. So we reduce offerings. We try
to trim where we can. We cut down on waste. Restaurants are
very nimble, but we are being stretched very, very thin.
Mr. CISNEROS. I introduced the Cut the Burden, Keep the
Benefits Act, which would allow small businesses to express
their concerns directly to the SBA's Office of Advocacy
regarding all government actions, including tariffs. They could
then assess the impact of these policies on small business and
advocate within the federal government against these negative
impacts. Is this something this Committee should be considering
in support of small business? So, Ms. Thurnher, would you like
to be able to call the SBA and say, hey, these tariffs are
having an impact on my business?
Ms. THURNHER. Yes. I would welcome any opportunity to give
feedback to the SBA on how they can support small businesses.
Mr. CISNEROS. Ms. Acevedo, the same to you. Would you like
to be able to contact the SBA and say, hey, your policy--this
is how your policies are affecting my business?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Absolutely. Our costs just rose by 5
percent.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you very much.
Ms. Thurnher, it is my understanding that independent
restaurants need stability to operate. What is the impact of
inconsistent and drastic immigration enforcement actions that
damage property or disrupt day-to-day operations?
Ms. THURNHER. Thank you for your question. I know that our
workforce heavily relies on immigrants from farm to table in
all aspects of food. So I know that it has been heavily
disruptive to supply chains as well as a community of fear.
Mr. CISNEROS. Thank you very much.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Patronis from the great State of
Florida for 5 minutes.
Mr. PATRONIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank y'all for
being here.
I was in the restaurant business for 30 years. Family is
still there. COVID taught us a lesson. Thank God we opened up
in Florida. But we had a feeling we didn't know where our
business was going to be because of COVID. So when we opened
back up, man, we signed up for every single delivery service
that was available just to try to scramble, to try to keep the
business open. And it was definitely a culture change for us.
We are an independent restaurant. Initially, the delivery
services were taking a piece of the action, which was not
attractive to us. So we just as soon just let people just order
and come pick up.
Now things have changed. So, one, thank you for what I
think you have done to the convenience for the industry. And
that was just more of a statement, not really asking for a
response, but I guess it is probably more towards Ms. Sharp.
Take my mother, for example, 90 years old, still incredibly
independent. Where do you see the ease for seniors with
independence to be able to leverage these services? I mean, my
mom loves Facebook. She loves texting, but you try to get her
an engagement app, it is probably not going to happen, but I am
sure that is a potential market.
Ms. SHARP. Thank you, Congressman. I think that is a really
interesting question to raise, and I think I would answer it in
two ways. First, there are sort of many user interface things
that platforms have tried to institute to make it as easy for
consumers as possible. So you might go back with your mother
and work with her to see.
Secondly, I would say that within rideshare and delivery,
there are increasingly options where you can order for a family
member or----
Mr. PATRONIS. Oh, yeah.
Ms. SHARP.--sort of have deliveries in that sense. And part
of the benefit of this industry is that it has truly increased
accessibility for those elderly or with disabilities. It has
truly lessened the problem of food deserts and access in rural
areas. So there are all kinds of things that you raise there.
Mr. PATRONIS. Where do you see evolution of delivery
through automation, say, with drones?
Ms. SHARP. Oh, that is a great question. So we see that
there is opportunity for interaction between automated vehicles
and the human populations of deliveries and drivers, and
largely that is because the automated vehicles can take over
some of the things that are less attractive for humans to do.
So the short, routine, lower paid tasks can be taken over by
drones or automated vehicles while saving the longer, more
complicated, higher paying rides for human drivers. And we do
see that happening.
I also will note that while there is such experimentation
and innovation going on in the AV industry right now, we are
nowhere near being able to use those things at scale. And so
there will, for the immediate and even longer term future,
there will be real combinations. We think of it as multimodal
and the ability to extend the delivery radius, extend the
opportunities for workers.
Mr. PATRONIS. And then this probably is just more or less a
comment. As a parent who has children that definitely are more
technologically savvy than I am, I think it is what it is. You
can't give the kid a credit card on this app because of the
abuse they will go through. It is just too easy to order
DoorDash and they abuse the hell out of it, Mr. Chairman. And
next thing you know, you have got $200 worth of charges on your
credit card and you are thinking your credit card has been
stolen. No, it is your child just got ahold of it.
So I know this is not uncommon in the industry. I know you
are laughing, but this is obviously something that I feel like,
you know, when it is time to call to try to change some of
these settings or circumstances, you know, a little more
consumer-friendly because the parents call bent out of shape
and a lot of times it is like--I don't know, it is frustrating.
I feel like sometimes, I know it is capitalism, but it is also,
you know, a need to kind of work with parents, too. I guess I
am probably just more venting than anything else.
Ms. SHARP. Well, as a parent of a middle and high schooler,
I sympathize with you, Congressman. But as an advocate of all
of the opportunities that platforms offer for partner
restaurants and shops, workers, and consumers, I can't say that
I am going to want to stop consumer demand.
Mr. PATRONIS. I understand. Just think I should point it
out.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Ranking Member Velazquez from the great
State of New York for 5 minutes.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Thurnher, I heard your restaurant has gone from getting
5 percent of your business from apps to now 20 percent. My
question to you is, is it feasible for you to provide customers
with an option to place delivery orders directly through your
restaurant's website?
Ms. THURNHER. Thank you for the question. Yes, we did build
our own website during COVID and we compete against the apps.
So if you search for Mexican delivery, you see apps no matter
what. If you search for El Ponce, you see the apps first.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. What more can app companies do to promote a
diverse range of options such as directing more traffic to
newer independent restaurants to help them compete?
Ms. THURNHER. Well, I think part of the problem is the
algorithm that is used within the apps. We have a lot of
metrics that are a little bit unfair in my opinion to small
operators. If we don't have pictures on all of our items, if we
don't have the app on all of the time, there are things that
push us down and we don't receive the Most Loved status which
would push us to the top. If we don't spend marketing ads
within the app, we are not at the top. So we continually get
pushed down.
I think what they could do is make it more fair, cater to
people's choices. You know what your customers are looking for.
You could just give them clear options that don't rank based on
pay to play.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Do the apps' marketing efforts sometimes
conflict with yours?
Ms. THURNHER. Yes, definitely. We are trying to do Google
Ads now. I feel that we are paying to be on a platform that is
using our funds, that we make them to advertise against us and
that feels unfair.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Can you talk to us about methods that you
have seen third-party delivery app companies using to grow
their share of the food delivery market?
Ms. THURNHER. Well, I think it is very similar to
rideshare, and I am a victim of this. You put your card into a
platform and you feel kind of like that is the option. You open
up your phone and you automatically default to whoever you have
given your information to. I know not everyone wants to put
their card in a million apps, so I understand that, but they do
have subscription models and passes where people get free
delivery discounts. And so I feel that the subscription model
is locking people into a platform that we can't compete against
the budget of the marketing that they have.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you. Ms. Sharp, with DoorDash and Uber
Eats commanding almost the entire third-party food delivery
market, less visibility on these apps can be financially
devastating. How do app companies work to ensure restaurants
have opportunities to rectify any issues before their listing
drops down in search results or their storefront is
deactivated?
Ms. SHARP. Thank you, Congresswoman. I appreciate the
opportunity to provide a different perspective on some of these
things because I do think it is important to have both
perspectives as you are considering an issue.
In some of the issues that have been raised so far, there
has been a focus on particular impressions or reactions that a
particular restaurant has had. And I do want to point out that
these are marketplaces and marketplaces need to appeal to the
worker, the restaurant partner, and the consumer at the same
time. And so they are constantly working to ensure that
restaurant partners are happy.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. But let me ask you a question. How do you
rectify for a restaurant that might not be at fault because the
delivery guy was not able to deliver it on time, or maybe
deliver at all, maybe they didn't find the address? Then you
are going to punish the restaurant because the person who made
the order was not satisfied.
Ms. SHARP. There are a couple different ways. There are
hotlines available to both workers and to restaurants to be
able to communicate and there are in app communication tools.
There is also extensive transparency up front about what the
tiers and pricing are for different tools within the
marketplace. So every restaurant is free to pick and choose the
things that work best for their restaurant if a restaurant
hasn't hit on the particular combination of things that will
make them most successful. So we are happy to work with them to
improve that.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. So that is a real issue right now. I hope
that you are looking at it and seeking solutions that benefit
everyone.
Ms. SHARP. It is absolutely to everyone's benefit that
these marketplaces appeal to all of the participants.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady's time is up.
I now recognize Mr. Meuser from the great State of
Pennsylvania for 5 minutes.
Mr. MEUSER. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you to our witnesses
very much for being here with us.
The Trump administration has taken many meaningful steps to
protect the gig economy and its workers by eliminating tax on
tips, for instance, and rolling back the Biden era $600
reporting threshold on gig transactions. American businesses
and employees of yours can keep more of what they earn while
contributing meaningfully to the U.S. economy.
So I will just start with you, Ms. Sharp, if I can. Can you
describe any federal policies or regulations that you believe
are hindering or would help the growth of the gig economy and
gig entrepreneurs?
Ms. SHARP. Two that you hit on, Congressman, are critically
important and that is the industry is enthusiastically
supportive of. And one is no tax on tips, which allows tipped-
based workers to deduct up to $25,000 in taxable income
resulting in app-based workers paying lower taxes. We did
around Tax Day, a quick poll of app-based workers and found
that of those who knew about the policy, 69 percent saw savings
and 47 percent saw substantial tax savings. As a result of that
policy. So that is one that has been incredibly helpful.
Secondly, the second thing you raised is the Department of
Labor's new proposed rule regarding independent contracting,
which dramatically streamlines the complexity of worker
classification rules and ensures that app-based workers and
other kinds of independent workers are free to pursue the
flexibility that is so important to them.
Mr. MEUSER. That is great. Do you think that has motivated
them to work more as well?
Ms. SHARP. I mean, I think that there is a general trend in
our society right now to have more than one source of income
and sort of multi-earning and it is encouraging that kind of
entrepreneurship. We see, particularly with younger millennials
and Gen Z, that there is real enthusiasm for having more than
one source of income and building that ability to be their own
boss.
Mr. MEUSER. That is great. That is great. I want to ask you
this as well. You really just hit upon it, how well the raising
of the threshold for the gig economy.
Ms. Acevedo, let me ask you, the Department of Labor under
the Trump administration advanced the rule to provide greater
clarity around independent contractor status. Can you explain
why clear and flexible worker, excuse me, classification is so
important for gig entrepreneurs who value independence and
control over their schedules?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Well, I think the flexibility alone
makes a big difference. For us personally, we are able to--even
with our own customers, when they call in and they want
something to go out quickly and our drivers are already on a
different run, we send them through DoorDash to be able to pick
that up and get it out quickly.
Mr. MEUSER. Yeah.
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. So we are really excited to have the
platform and to use it to our advantage.
Mr. MEUSER. Excellent.
As well, Ms. Buxton, let me ask you, if I can, what more
could the SBA be doing, in your view, to help traditional small
businesses owners become aware and adopt the digital tools that
that are can be used so effectively?
Ms. BUXTON. The SBA already does a number of things. For
example, next month they are having a virtual summit around
Small Business Day and there is a lot of training that goes on
during that. I think a lot of companies are really seriously
focused right now on AI, but they really also need to focus on
how they can use these platforms to grow their business. So I
think there is an educational component either through SBA or
SCORE or something like that.
Mr. MEUSER. That is wonderful. And my last minute, it is
interesting how many of your employees or those who work as
contractors in the gig economy become entrepreneurs, start
their own businesses. And in a way, you know, I hate--not for
everyone, but that is what America is all about, we are an
entrepreneurial nation and spirit.
Maybe Ms. Sharp and then Ms. Acevedo, either one of you
just explain how that affects you. Do you lose people? Do you
gain new businesses? Right, if the employees want to do the
things on their own?
Ms. SHARP. Actually, no. We see app-based digital platform
work as a launchpad into entrepreneurship and find it exciting
when somebody learns those skills through a platform and then
applies them in, as you say, a traditional brick-and-mortar
business. I mean, I think that is exactly the essence of the
American Dream, to learn a skill and then be able to advance
your career and make more money because of it.
Mr. MEUSER. Right. They are baking pies, not cutting them
up. So I appreciate that.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Tran from the great State of California
for 5 minutes.
Mr. TRAN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking
Member, for holding this hearing. Thank you to our witnesses
for being here today.
The gig economy is a major economic pillar of how millions
of Americans work, earn income, and even launch small
businesses. In Southern California, I see this every day. From
rideshare drivers navigating L.A. traffic to delivery workers
in Orange County to freelancers building their own client base,
this model has opened new doors for flexibility and small
business growth. For many people, especially those shut out by
traditional employment, gig work can be a lifeline.
However, we cannot talk about opportunities without talking
about accountability. Before I came to Congress, I was a lawyer
defending workers who had been harmed by their workplace. So I
know what it looks like when a company prioritizes growth over
safety and profits over people. I have seen it and fought
against it. And unfortunately, I am seeing this problem when it
comes to the gig economy.
Over the past decade, we have seen deeply troubling reports
about sexual assault and harassment connected to rideshare
companies and on demand delivery services. According to a New
York Times investigation, Uber receives a report of sexual
assault or sexual misconduct in the United States every 8
minutes. California alone has been the site of some of the most
high-profile cases in this litigation. In its most recent
safety report, Uber acknowledged more than 2,700 cases of
sexual assault from 2021 to 2022 alone. Independent follow-up
investigations found that many drivers accused of misconduct
remained active on the platform even after complaints. And just
this past February, a federal jury ordered Uber to pay 8.5
million to a woman who was sexually assaulted by her driver.
This isn't just a consumer safety issue. Gig workers also
face assault, discrimination, and harassment on the job, and
they also deserve protection. But many operate without the
basic safeguard that exists in traditional workplaces. I am all
for supporting innovation, flexibility, and entrepreneurship
that gig workers create. But a business model built on
flexibility cannot double as a shield from accountability.
The persons who show up at your door should be who they say
they are. Their background should be properly vetted. And if
something goes wrong on either side of the equation, the
company that profited from that transaction needs to answer for
it. That is not anti-innovation. This is basic consumer
protection. And if these companies can't do both, then Congress
needs to make sure they do.
Ms. Sharp, millions of Americans use gig platforms every
day for rideshares, food delivery, and furniture assembly. But
we have seen serious safety failures, including sexual assault
cases. What standard background checks do your member companies
require? And also, are those checks continuous or just a one-
time screening?
Ms. SHARP. Thank you, Congressman. I appreciate you raising
the issue. And I think that we can all agree that even one
sexual assault is too many.
Our industry prioritizes very much the safety of all
participants. As a marketplace that needs to maintain and
attract the business of everyone involved, we find that we are
constantly looking at ways to improve the safety and
accountability of the platforms in everything from driver and
rider matching interactions where you have to ask the person's
name when you get into a car to an emergency button that
connects through GPS directly to emergency services in the case
that something goes awry. As digital platforms and technology
platforms, we are constantly iterating and constantly looking
at those things.
In terms of background checks, we want to ensure that all
drivers are verified and authenticated as much as possible. And
everyone has to have a driver's license and a background check
in advance of going onto a platform. And then we work
continuously to spot check as necessary and continue taking
feedback from consumers, feedback from drivers, feedback from
riders in order to improve those systems.
Mr. TRAN. Thank you, Ms. Sharp. And as a follow-up to that,
we have seen cases where individuals credibly accused of
misconduct were able to continue working or simply join a
different platform. That is really troubling to me. What
systems are in place across all of your member companies to
flag and remove bad actors and to prevent them from simply
moving to another platform?
Ms. SHARP. Every platform has extensive verification and
authentication processes and we very carefully try to ensure
fairness in deactivation for both riders and drivers.
Mr. TRAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize for the second time, we talked about you
before you got here, Congressman, Congressman Fuller, our new
member from Georgia, for 5 minutes.
Mr. FULLER. Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to be part of this
Committee. I look forward to working with all of my colleagues
here, my Democrat colleagues as well.
I am a husband to a small business owner, so these issues
are near and dear to my heart. So I want to turn my first
question to you, Ms. Acevedo. Your business might have saved me
when I was a law student in Dallas and got my then fiance some
Valentine's flowers when I probably forgot about that holiday.
So thank you very much.
So your family has been in the floral business for decades
there in Dallas. And in the past, the only way for local
florists to expand their reach was to rely on traditional wire
services, a system that made few people at the top very
wealthy, including a current governor and former member of this
body, but often squeezed small businesses like yourself who
were actually doing the work. So I wanted to ask you, and I
know you may have talked a little bit about this before, but
how has the emergence of the gig economy platforms disrupted
that old model and provided a more competitive, viable
alternative for your family's business?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you for the question and thank
you for ordering.
I think it is--it is a wonderful way DoorDash has brought
in just a really good way of partnering with them and expanding
our business, as well as saving on those traditional fees.
Those fees are really high and then we have all the other
things that come with it, like membership fees and those types
of things. And with DoorDash, it is one small fee and it covers
everything. Not only does it cover everything, we truly believe
that they are our partner.
We had a situation just recently with one of the wire
services where my daughter made a delivery on her way home. And
that delivery, we were told the person didn't get it, which
they did. And immediately, we received a message saying, you
are not getting paid for this order. In the 2-1/2 years we have
been with DoorDash, we had one incident where we had a Dasher
come in, pick up the flowers, walk out, and then cancel the
order. It was our first time. It was super quick to go to the
iPad and call them and say, hey, we have this situation we have
never had before. And they said, immediately, we are going to
pay you for the order. Make another one. We will send another
Dasher, no problem.
That is a partnership to me and to our small business. And
it makes a huge difference when we really do feel like a
partner and not like an outsider opposed to some of the wire
services that we work with. And on top of that, we are actually
exiting some of those wire services as we speak because our
partnership with DoorDash has been such an incredible change.
Mr. FULLER. Well said. Beautifully said. And let me ask, if
Congress were to step in and regulate those platforms that you
were just describing as some want to do, are you concerned that
small businesses like yours would be forced right back into the
arms of those companies that you were talking about?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. It definitely would be. If they were
to stop these platforms, we would have to go back into that
harsh situation with wire services that really don't partner
with us. They are there to make their money. They are there
to--if I could show you just one of the invoices, it would be
horrendous. So it would really take away from our business.
But like I said previous, our very first year, we grew by
10 percent just using DoorDash. And we continue to grow every
quarter just using DoorDash. And on top of that, our deliveries
get there super quick.
Mr. FULLER. Always important, especially when husband
forgets or something like that, so. And it sounds like from
your testimony, the partnership that you are describing is a
free enterprise, voluntary, strategic decision that you are
making to reallocate your workforce to serve in-store customers
during rushes. Would you agree with that?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Absolutely. It also helps us employ
even more people. During last year when we first started--or 2
years ago when we first started with them, we had to actually
turn the machine off because we could not keep up. And we were
super excited, but we couldn't keep up. And then we were able
to plan better, have more people come in just to handle the
DoorDash part of our business, which, again, grew us by 10
percent in just 1 year.
Mr. FULLER. Amazing.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time. Thank you.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Olszewski from the great State of
Maryland for 5 minutes.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our
Ranking Member. And I want to thank all of our witnesses for
joining us today.
As we all know, the rising cost of living and a sluggish
job market is pushing more and more Americans to jump into this
gig economy that we are talking about today. We know it is also
challenging business owners like those we heard from today, who
are grappling with the higher costs of fuel, labor, rent, and
insurance. Of course, we can't have a complete conversation on
the impact of rising costs on businesses without mentioning the
expiration of the Affordable Care Act's tax credits, which we
know is exacerbating the affordability crisis and pushing so
many Americans to pursue second and even third jobs just to pay
the bills. More than 5 million small business owners and self-
employed Americans are covered by the ACA. More than 4.4
million of those receive tax credits worth an average of
$1,500.
It is also worth mentioning that gig and self-employed
workers, including the more than 527,000 of those in Maryland,
are often paid subminimum wages while taking on the primary
risks and cost of doing business under the name of their highly
profitable parent companies.
At the same time, we need to consider the impact the gig
economy has on small employers. Nowhere is this more evident
than the restaurant industry working in partnership with food
delivery drivers like Uber Eats and DoorDash. I say
``partnership'' because I think it is in the interest of all of
us and this country and workers to make sure that that is
exactly what it is, partnership between the parent companies
and their drivers and also these companies with their
relationship with other small businesses across the country.
Ms. Thurnher, you raised some interesting points about the
impact of delivery apps on already razor-thin margin margins.
We know that restaurants aren't just job generators. They are
community gathering places. They sponsor local sports teams,
they support local ag, and so much more. We want to make sure
that we are having a fair, transparent, and competitive
framework that exists for both industries.
And so I will start by asking you, you mentioned a few
policies through your testimony, screening, training,
transparency, the ability to connect with customers. Can you go
a little deeper about what federal policies you think would
help create that more sustainable collaboration or what those
policies might look like to help facilitate that environment?
Ms. THURNHER. Yes, thank you for the question. At a
minimum, I would ask that we focus on three things. First would
be fee transparency. Restaurants and consumers should know
exactly what fees are being charged and why and from whom. No
hidden markups, no opaque algorithms.
Secondly, I would say data access is important for small
businesses to know who their customers are and to be able to
market to them. If a customer orders my food, I should have the
right to know who they are so I can serve them, correct
problems, and build a relationship. The platforms have no
legitimate business reason to deny me that.
And third, a fee fairness. Commission rates should be
capped at a level that allows a business operating on 4 to 6
percent margins to participate without losing money on every
order. Several cities, including San Francisco, have already
done this successfully. I am asking Congress to extend that
protection nationally.
And I am not asking to turn back the clock. We appreciate
these apps. They are integral to our business. I am just asking
for a floor of fairness that lets independent restaurants
compete on the merits of their food and not the depths of their
wallets. And while we have an opportunity with the FTC asking
for Congress to make these rules, I think it is urgent and
imperative that we do so soon.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. I appreciate that and I also appreciate it,
as the Ranking Member mentioned, the revenue growth from 5 to
20 percent, so, obviously, a big portion of your business. But
you mentioned sort of the fee schedule generally, with these
fees accounting for more and more of your bottom line, I
imagine, what is the long-term business outlook if the existing
regulatory framework remains completely unchanged for your
business?
Ms. THURNHER. Well, I can see a decline in our to-go
orders. We had to make a decision to--previously when we first
signed up with apps, we did not have the ability to change menu
prices. We were contractually bound to offer the same prices as
in the store. Now we are allowed to increase, which we have had
to do. So if you order directly from me, you are paying quite a
bit less for each dish. So we are twisting the value
perception. Someone could be very upset that they receive a $7
taco that they can see on my menu as $4. Those types of things
I think erode trust and erode customer loyalty, which is the
bread and butter of restaurants.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. So customers ordering online may be paying
both more for the product plus the service delivery fees.
Ms. THURNHER. Correct.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. Interesting.
Ms. Sharp, with my remaining time, I know DoorDash began a
pilot program in Maryland to help with health, dental, vision,
retirement, and paid time off through portable benefits. Can
you just give us a quick update on that and what your response
is to what many say about the program, about it not
sufficiently meeting the needs of healthcare costs and
potentially being a way to permanently enshrine contractor
status for gig workers?
Ms. SHARP. Well, thank you, Congressman. Appreciate the
question. You are right that portable benefits have been an
exciting new experiment and innovation in your state, so we
very much appreciate the partnership there. And you identify
portable benefits are a set of benefits that follow the worker
rather than----
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman's time is up.
Ms. SHARP.--rather than----
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. We will follow up. I yield back my time, Mr.
Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields his time back.
I now recognize Mr. Wied from Wisconsin for the for 5
minutes.
Mr. WIED. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our
witnesses for being here today as we discuss the future of
entrepreneurialism, which is what makes our country so great.
You know, from delivery drivers to website developers,
freelance workers provide invaluable services for small
businesses across our nation. Many entrepreneurs are drawn to
these jobs due to the flexibility they offer in determining how
and when they work. This flexibility is especially appealing to
younger generations, with over half of Gen Z participating in
freelance work.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration,
freelancers have seen both regulatory and tax relief. These
reforms, many of which were included in the working families
tax cuts, were designed to allow hardworking Americans to keep
more of their hard-earned money. Provisions like no tax on
tips, no tax on overtime are particularly beneficial for
freelance workers, who rely on this additional income. And
hardworking Americans are taking advantage of that.
The numbers speak for themselves. More than 6 million
filers have claimed no tax on tips, with an average of over
$7,100 in refunds. More than 25 million filers have claimed no
tax on overtime, saving an average of over $3,100. These are
real, these are tangible, and they are wins that workers across
our country can take to the bank.
So I will start my first question, Ms. Sharp. What benefits
are independent workers seeing from provisions from the working
families tax cuts in regards to the no tax on tips? Can you
just expand on that?
Ms. SHARP. Congressman, they are seeing lower taxes. We see
69 percent of people in the app-based industry have reported
paying lower taxes as a result of no tax on tips, 47 percent
paying substantially lower.
Mr. WIED. Oftentimes we think of freelancers, you know,
that work in major cities like here. But could you just tell us
about, you know, your experience with those in rural areas
throughout our country?
Ms. SHARP. Yes, thank you. That is a great question because
there is often an assumption that the digital world operates
mostly in cities. And what we have seen is that it is a pretty
even distribution between rural, suburban, and urban locations.
Platforms serve rural Americans with providing income for
somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of all adults that live in
rural areas. And these are meaningful supplemental income
supports when options for full-time work are sometimes limited.
So we also see 6 in 10 rural adults are consumers of app-based
platform products and services, increasing mobility, increasing
access to food access and goods, and saving time by having the
goods and services come to you.
Mr. WIED. Thanks.
Ms. Buxton, so gig entrepreneurship is increasingly
popular, of course, among Gen Z and millennials. Can you
discuss how digital platforms like yours lower the barrier to
entry to become an entrepreneur?
Ms. BUXTON. Well, learning how to, as Ms. Sharp was
explaining, learning how to operate yourself as a business, how
to be responsible, how to be part of an ecosystem that requires
you to accept what you want to do and then go do it or cancel
it if you are not going to do it. So it creates an opportunity
for people to learn the ups and downs of being their own
business, if you will. It also gives people an opportunity to
be exposed to different industries that they may not have ever
been exposed to or different types of work as they are
researching what they may want to do, and they may actually
find that there is a way for them to make something better, and
then they go out and make it better from there.
Mr. WIED. Very good. Well, thank you all for this great
discussion.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Scholten from the great State of
Michigan for 5 minutes.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much to
our witnesses here today.
Ms. Thurnher, your testimony highlights several challenges
of participating in the gig economy. As a restaurant owner, you
note that having your business on multiple food delivery
platforms is a defensive business strategy, more a matter of
survival than choice. I know you have gone over this, you know,
in the question and the testimony today, so thanks for bearing
with me. But if you were to advise a new restaurant owner on
navigating food delivery apps today, what would you tell them
based on what you have learned? What would your advice be to
them?
Ms. THURNHER. Thank you for that question. I do give people
advice. There are, outside of just delivery, there are ghost
kitchens, there is catering. The apps want us to allow people
to order from their table in the restaurant through the app. I
am not sure why, but there is just this encroachment on data.
And I advise people, like, whatever you can do to set up your
own platform so that you can target and market to your
customers, to do that. The reality is we do need to participate
with these apps. They own the market share. 99 percent of
delivery orders are ordered through these parties.
So I advise them to look at what they can afford to do.
What are your highest margin items? Don't put your full menu on
the apps. Make sure that you are accounting for the containers
that everything has to go in, because that is another expense
that we don't have in the dining room. And to just make sure
that you have to test things that they could sit for 45 minutes
before someone eats them and not be unsafe or ruin the quality.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Right, right. Great, great advice. There is
also a lack of transparency with these platforms that make it
difficult to plan for the long term and grow your business.
Many platforms have unforgiving algorithms resulting in
deactivations of businesses or delivery workers if they are
rating fall below a certain threshold, which again, are not
clear. Right?
Given the nature of these algorithms, how would having
access to information, including this customer data, benefit
your business and the ability to navigate these services?
Ms. THURNHER. I think that customer data is key. We do our
own delivery and pickup, which actually DoorDash and Uber
fulfill through our point of sale for a flat fee. So I feel
like that is a much fairer system. I can call my customer. I
don't know that there is a problem unless they call the store.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Yeah.
Ms. THURNHER. So I find out maybe 2 or 3 days later that
something was missing from an order. Two or 3 days later is too
late. So when a customer is upset and hungry and they don't get
what they expected, we try to mitigate that immediately or we
would lose that customer.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Mm-hmm. Great. We know the cost of goods for
families and small businesses continue to rise due to tariffs
and inflation.
Ms. Thurnher, again, do you typically have to raise your
menu prices on the app to cover their fees? And if so, do you
worry about reducing the number of orders you receive or
suppressing your listings on the app if you have to raise your
prices, you know, due to this?
Ms. THURNHER. Yes. I mean, that is very clear within the
metrics of the categories that push you up to the highest
visibility. If your pricing is not the same as your menu, then
you are pushed down, and that is a pretty clear policy.
However, we would be out of business if we didn't add prices to
our menu items. I don't see how we could sustain. We have 4 to
6 percent profit margin. If we are giving those fees directly
to them and absorbing that with the volume that we do, there is
absolutely no way we would survive.
Ms. SCHOLTEN. Yeah. Thank you.
I yield back.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I now recognize Mr. Jack from the great State of Georgia
for 5 minutes.
Mr. JACK. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And
before we begin, and I also want to thank, I should say, our
witnesses for your testimony today.
Before we begin, I want to recognize from my district, we
are talking about apps today in the app-based economy. We
should note sitting behind you are students from Carrollton
High School who won the congressional App Challenge for Georgia
Third Congressional District. So to Omar, Wade, Alaina, Juliet,
just over your right shoulders, they are the winners of the App
Challenge from my district and we are very excited for them as
they take this next step to develop new applications. So
congratulations to Carrollton High School. Eight years in a
row, they have won.
But if I could start with Ms. Sharp, I deeply appreciate
your testimony. And I love learning about the history of
industries. And I am curious what you would cite as kind of the
dawn of the app-based industry. And I am incredibly impressed
with its rapid, rapid growth and the future it holds. But I am
curious what you would start--or what you would suspect is the
dawn of it? When did it begin?
Ms. SHARP. Thank you for that question, Congressman. As we
discussed a little bit in this hearing, this is an industry
that is on the cusp of entrepreneurship and has been leading
the way and is not even a generation old. The first app
platforms in the delivery industry was Grubhub 20 years ago and
rideshare, Uber maybe 15 or 17 years ago.
And it has taken off exponentially, largely because the
industry and platforms deliver a win-win-win for all of the
participants. So riders, get easy access to mobility and
getting where they need to go. Drivers get flexible income that
they can work whenever, wherever, and however they want to. And
restaurant partners are able to extend their delivery radiuses,
grow to new customers, appeal to people that they wouldn't
otherwise have been able to appeal to as a result. And so the
industry really is a marketplace that draws together all of
those different stakeholders in a way that increases the growth
for everybody.
Mr. JACK. Last year we passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill
Act and within it we, and as you have spoken today, included no
tax on tips, especially for app-based earners. Could you share
with this Committee how that has perhaps helped the industry
grow and recruit more people into it, knowing that they can
receive no tax on tips?
Ms. SHARP. We have seen immediate pickup in the No Tax On
Tips Initiative with about 69 percent of participants in the
industry reporting that they've seen lower taxes as a result of
the policy and 47 percent seeing substantially lower taxes.
Mr. JACK. Thank you.
Ms. Alvarez, I really appreciated your testimony and,
frankly, very inspired about the growth of your business over
the last multi generations, but you think about the growth you
have experienced the last few years because of DoorDash and
what it has offered to you. Twice in your testimony you
referenced the challenges small businesses face with permitting
and paperwork and just burdensome regulations. Could you share
with the Committee any personal experiences with which you have
dealt with burdensome regulations and how best this Committee
could focus on alleviating those burdens for you?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you for your question. We
actually rebuilt Joyce Florist 5 years ago. So we have a new
building and there were a lot of permitting issues. There were
a lot of issues in general with just building the building and
delays because we had more than one person we were working
with, that we worked with several different people within our
city. And so it would be wonderful to have just one person that
we dealt with that would know everything about the entire
process.
At one point we waited 6 weeks for one meeting just to have
our building moved forward, closer to the street, which it was
not before. And so just meeting after meeting and just
different barriers that we had. So it would be great to have
one point of contact person that we could kind of work with
throughout to have the same information instead of different
people with different information.
Mr. JACK. Thank you very much.
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Thank you.
Mr. JACK. And if I could just ask you, too, with respect to
DoorDash, what led you to DoorDash? Was it just the business
model they offered or were there other, you know, applications
you were interested in?
Ms. ALVAREZ ACEVEDO. Well, when we were first approached
about it, we were surprised that they were going to allow us to
sell flowers. We were super excited to have a different avenue.
And then we were also excited that the fees were minimal
compared to wire services. And so we decided to take the chance
and we absolutely love it.
Mr. JACK. Taking a risk, it pays off. That is what is the--
that is what is so inspiring about small business and
entrepreneurship. So applaud each and every one of you for your
testimony.
And thanks to the Carrollton students for winning our App
Challenge. I will introduce you to you all after this hearing.
And I yield back to our Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentleman yields back.
I now recognize Ms. Goodlander from the great State of New
Hampshire for 5 minutes.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
our witnesses for being here today for this really important
hearing.
Before I got to Congress, I worked in the Antitrust
Division at the Justice Department. So I spent my days thinking
about corporate monopolies and the impact of monopolies across
our economy on hardworking people and on small businesses.
Ms. Thurnher, I wanted to pick up on your very powerful
written testimony where you really point out what we are
dealing with here when we think about the market for just the
role that these big corporations are playing in your lived
experience and in the important work you are doing to maintain
a small business.
The three dominant American delivery platforms, or U.S.-
based, I should say, DoorDash, just the profits are pretty eye-
popping. In the last 5 years, you point out, we have seen a
fivefold increase in corporate profits from DoorDash, Uber
Eats, and Grubhub. Meanwhile, as you point out, independent
restaurants have seen--first of all, we have lost almost more
than 9,500 small independent restaurants in this country and we
are seeing razor-thin and often negative margins.
Ms. Thurnher, I wanted to ask you if you could speak to the
impact of consolidation in this market on the work that you are
trying to do and your small business.
Ms. THURNHER. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to share.
This is a common problem happening across industry. So it
is really affecting us in our power to negotiate. A free market
is a free market when you have multiple players. This feels
like a duopoly, similar to what is happening with Sysco and
U.S. Foods of the world. We have less and less choices of who
can provide us services, which they tend to give deals to
larger chains to people who have more buying power. And while I
understand that behooves them, we are the soul of America's
cities. Entrepreneurship is the heartbeat of America. And if we
only want to be left with corporations, then we can just choose
to turn our head the other way. Otherwise, I think that we need
some regulation because this is definitely not a fair market,
in my opinion.
Ms. GOODLANDER. So less choice, higher prices. You point
out in your testimony that all three of these massive platforms
operate without any federal cap on commission fees, with no
requirement to share customer data with restaurant partners
like you, and no mandate for pricing transparency either to the
restaurants or to the consumers. Can you just speak to the
impact that commission fees and uncap commission fees have had
on your ability to keep the lights on at your restaurants?
Ms. THURNHER. It has definitely changed many things since,
as I stated previously, pre-COVID, it was a very small
percentage of our business and we viewed it as marketing. And
so as long as it wasn't a total loss, we were gaining exposure
to customers, which I think is a benefit of this
market.customer's attention.
I do think the issue now is that our costs on everything
are much higher and if we don't increase our prices to absorb
the percentage, then we will not be able to either offer that
service. We would lose a lot of market share. A lot of new
people who move to our area find us on apps because that is
their first exposure. When they are moving in and unpacking,
they don't want to cook or they can't, their kitchen isn't
ready, so they are ordering delivery.
COVID really put us in a position where that was all of our
business and then it really got all the customers into this
pattern. I think that you can see in that delivery growth that
we just talked about. Their sales are growing while our margins
are shrinking and our businesses are closing.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Ms. Sharp, I wanted to pick up on just the
sky high and rising costs of gas right now and how your member
companies are thinking about the basic question of whether you
are going to adjust your pricing algorithms to account for
rising gas prices into the compensation that you offer for
rideshare and delivery drivers.
Ms. SHARP. Thank you, Congresswoman. This is an emerging
issue and it is a little early to have full statistical
analysis.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Oh, I am not asking for that. Just as a
general matter, do you commit to--do your member companies
commit to actually adjusting pricing algorithms to account for
sky-high gas prices?
Ms. SHARP. Our member companies already have relief
programs that work with drivers to partner with gas companies
in order to provide deals and discounts.
Ms. GOODLANDER. Well, I see my time is up. Thank you to our
witnesses. I will be following up with questions for the record
and hope we can get your commitment to ensure that your drivers
are paid fairly.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman WILLIAMS. The gentlelady yields back.
I would now like to thank our witnesses for their testimony
and for appearing before us today. Without objection, members
have 5 legislative days to submit additional materials and
written questions for the witnesses to the Chair, which will be
forwarded to the witnesses. I ask the witnesses to please
respond promptly.
If there is no further business, without objection, the
Committee is now adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 11:57 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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