Australia now guarantees food delivery riders about A$31 an hour. It pays only for the minutes spent on a job.

The rest of the day

23 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Seattle's floor doubled pay per job, not pay

   In January 2024 Seattle required delivery apps to pay drivers at least $5 a job, worked out from minutes and miles. [4] Labour economists using Gridwise data found base pay per delivery rose from about $5 to over $12. [4] DoorDash added a fee of about $5 to Seattle orders, tips fell, and Uber Eats removed tipping at checkout. [4] Drivers already on the apps did 20% to 30% fewer deliveries, and the wait between jobs nearly doubled. [4] After the first month, monthly earnings were back where they started. [4]

   Why it matters — It is the nearest real test of the kind of floor Australia has just started. Chicago, Colorado and Minnesota have proposed similar rules. [4]

2. 03

   British unions want computer-set pay banned

   The Trades Union Congress, Britain's federation of trade unions, asked the UK government in May 2026 to ban dynamic pay on apps such as Uber. [5] Under dynamic pay, a computer sets each fare and each driver's share to match demand at that moment. [5] Uber took a fixed 20% of UK fares, later 25%, before switching to this system in 2023. [5] An Oxford study found many Uber drivers earned substantially less an hour afterwards. [5] Drivers told the union the work felt like gambling. [5]

   Why it matters — The union's leader said two drivers doing practically the same job at the same time could be paid wildly different sums. [5] A driver has seconds to accept a job, with patchy information about what it pays. [5]

3. 04

   China's riders: 50 drops for $46

   The Wall Street Journal followed Xu Hui, a 35-year-old delivery rider in Beijing, through one working day. [6] He made his first drop before 11am and stopped at 11.31pm, after 60 miles and nearly 50 deliveries. [6] That is about one delivery every 15 minutes. [6] He earned about $46. [6] China now has some 200 million gig workers, in a country once known for its factory workers. [6]

   Why it matters — It shows how large app work can grow when anyone can join. Many riders there say the flexibility is what draws them. [6]

4. 05

   Delivery drivers pay for the fuel themselves

   Drivers for DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub in the US are independent contractors, so they buy their own fuel. [7] After the US and Israeli war on Iran began, petrol went from under $3 a gallon nationally to around $4 in Detroit by late March 2026. [7] DoorDash offered 10% cash back on fuel through late April. [7] Lee Dahl, a 65-year-old Detroit driver, now accepts fewer than a quarter of the orders he is offered, to keep his miles down. [7]

   Why it matters — The cost of each job rose while its pay did not. Dahl said DoorDash's rebate was like getting paid for one or two more orders a week. [7]

5. 06

   Klarna brings back people, as gig workers

   Klarna, a buy now, pay later lender, replaced hundreds of customer service staff with an AI chatbot in 2024. [8] After customers complained, it began hiring people again, but on gig terms rather than as full-time staff. [8] Its chief executive, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, called it an Uber type of set-up. [8] The chatbot now answers basic questions, and gig workers take the harder ones. [8]

   Why it matters — Office work can move onto the same terms as app driving, with no paid time off, health insurance or minimum wage. [8] Sociologists quoted by the Guardian expect it in many industries. [8]

6. 07

   US gig workers get fewer tax forms

   From 2025, a US app only has to send a gig worker a Form 1099-K, which reports what customers paid, if payments top $20,000 across more than 200 transactions. [9] Before 2025 the trigger was $600. [9] Some states, including Maryland and Virginia, still require a form from $600. [9] The US tax agency also set its 2026 business mileage rate at 72.5 cents a mile, up 2.5 cents. [10] That rate is the standard figure for the deductible cost of driving a car for work. [10]

   Why it matters — The form shows everything customers paid, tips included, before the app takes its fee. [9] So the figure on it is larger than what the driver actually received.

7. 08

   Australia's lowest paid get nearly 6%

   Australia's Fair Work Commission raised award wages by 4.75% from 1 July 2026, for about 2.7 million workers. [11] About 100,000 of the lowest paid got 5.97%, taking the national minimum wage from A$24.95 to A$26.44 an hour. [11][12] Unions had asked for 6% after the Middle East conflict pushed prices up. [11] Prices had risen 4.2% in the year to April. [11] The commission's president, Adam Hatcher, said closing the gap in lost buying power would take well over 5%. [11]

   Why it matters — More than 60% of the lowest paid workers are women, and more than 70% work part-time. [12]

8. 09

   Australian pension money now arrives with pay

   Since 1 July 2026, Australian employers must pay superannuation, the country's workplace pension, at the same time as wages instead of every three months. [13] The money has to reach the worker's fund within seven business days of payday. [13] The change was brought in against more than A$3bn of super that goes unpaid each year. [13] The same day, government-funded parental leave rose from 24 to 26 weeks, and the lowest income tax rate fell from 16% to 15%. [13]

   Why it matters — Paying the pension with each wage makes a missing payment easier for a worker to spot. [13]

9. 10

   Guernsey's public workers accept a pay rise

   About 800 public sector workers in Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, accepted a pay offer in a ballot run by Unite, their union. [14] Of those who voted, 66% said yes. [14] The rises run from 5% for the lowest-paid grade to 3.7% for the highest. [14] The union said the offer came after eight months of delays by the States of Guernsey, the island's government. [14] Staff include hospital porters and airport workers. [14]

   Why it matters — A worker in the middle of the lowest grade will earn about 550 pounds a week. [14] The union says that is still not enough to live on in Guernsey. [14]

10. 11

    Condo owners face higher fees and big one-off bills

    More than half of US community associations, the boards that run condo buildings and housing estates, plan to raise regular fees, a May 2026 survey found. [15] 14% plan special assessments, which are one-off charges for big repairs. [15] Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big US home-loan companies, say that from 2027 loans will stop in buildings whose reserves are under 15% of the yearly budget, up from 10%. [15] The median monthly condo fee reached $420 in 2025, up 29% from 2019. [16]

    Why it matters — One five-unit building in Ocean City, Maryland, kept no reserves for 35 years, then billed each owner $70,000 over two years. [15] Condo prices have fallen 6% since March 2022, while house prices rose 7.5%. [15]

11. 12

    Florida condo insurance costs twice the US average

    Insuring a single condo in Florida costs $1,035 a year on average, more than twice the US average of $510, NerdWallet found. [17] In Miami the average is $2,335. [17] After a condo tower collapsed in Surfside, Florida, in 2021, the state required regular inspections and money set aside for repairs. [17] Many buildings raised that money through special assessments on owners. [17] By May 2026, Florida condo sales and median prices were up on the year. [15]

    Why it matters — Owners can also be billed their share when damage runs past the limit of the building's own policy. [18] Individual condo policies sell an add-on, called loss assessment cover, for that bill. [18]

12. 13

    US elder fraud cases climb

    IRS Criminal Investigation, the US tax agency's police arm, opened 97 elder fraud investigations in its 2025 financial year. [19] Halfway through the next year it had opened 64 more. [19] Its cases since 2021 involve alleged fraud of $885.86m. [19] Of that, $736.82m is in cases opened in the last two years. [19] Nearly 97% of its prosecuted cases ended in conviction, with average prison terms of almost four years. [19]

    Why it matters — Most of the money in the agency's elder fraud files comes from cases opened in the last two years. [19] These are only the cases this one agency took on.

13. 14

    Florida courier jailed over elderly gold scam

    A court in Gainesville, Florida, sentenced Atharva Sathawane to 18 years in prison for his part in a fraud run partly from India. [20] Elderly victims were talked into cashing in their retirement savings for cash or gold. [20] He made at least 33 trips to collect it, taking $6.6m in cash and gold. [20] An FBI agent said Florida victims lost more than $33m to gold bar scams last year. [20]

    Why it matters — He was caught because one victim grew suspicious and called the police. [20] A concerned friend of another victim stopped a further pickup. [20]

14. 15

    A care boss used power of attorney to steal

    Peter Hunter, who ran a care company in Wakefield, England, was jailed for six years and nine months at Leeds Crown Court. [21] He took power of attorney, the legal right to run another person's money, over several clients and paid their money to himself. [21] He inflated care bills and made himself executor of one woman's will. [21] He also took 32,691 pounds of his own mother's benefits. [21] The frauds totalled 330,370 pounds between 2011 and 2021. [21]

    Why it matters — Power of attorney exists so someone can manage money for a person who no longer can. [21] Here the person given that power was the person taking the money. [21]

15. 16

    Detroit judge charged over wards' money

    US prosecutors in Detroit charged four people, including a sitting judge, with stealing from wards, adults a court has found unable to run their own affairs. [22] A company called Guardian and Associates had been appointed to look after wards in more than 1,000 cases. [22] The judge, Andrea Bradley-Baskin, is accused of using $70,000 of one ward's money to buy a stake in a bar. [22] About 1.3 million American adults are under a guardianship or conservatorship. [23]

    Why it matters — The accused include the owner of the company appointed to protect the wards and a lawyer who represented it in the same court. [22] The charges are accusations, not yet proved in court.

16. 17

    AI voice clones behind a new scam count

    In 2025 the FBI's internet crime unit began counting complaints with an AI link: more than 22,000, with about $893m lost. [24] People over 60 lost $352m of it. [24] Cloning a voice now takes a few seconds of audio, and in one study listeners spotted a fake voice only about 60% of the time. [24] In a Bankrate survey, 52% of Americans expected to be targeted by a scam, up from 37% the year before. [25]

    Why it matters — These scams are built around fear and hurry, such as a grandchild's voice asking for money at once. [24] Stress pushes people to decide fast at the moment they need to slow down. [24]

17. 18

    A real tax letter that scammers copy

    The US tax agency is moving away from paper refund cheques. [26] If a refund cannot be paid into a bank account, the agency sends one letter, called a CP53E, asking for correct details. [26] It sends that letter only once. [26] If a second deposit fails, there is no further chance to update the details. [26] The agency never asks for bank details by email, text or phone. [26]

    Why it matters — Scammers are using the confusion over the change to ask people for their bank details. [26] The only official way to update them is through the taxpayer's own online account. [26]

18. 19

    Canada plans to ban crypto cash machines

    Canada's government introduced a bill in April 2026 to create a Financial Crimes Agency to investigate and prosecute financial crime. [27] A public inquiry had found the country had no joined-up plan against money laundering. [27] Canada will also ban cryptocurrency ATMs, machines that swap cash for crypto, which officials say scammers use to take victims' money. [27] The country has nearly 4,000 of them, the most per person in the world. [27]

    Why it matters — Canada's financial intelligence unit found $45bn in suspect transactions last year but hands cases to police rather than arresting anyone. [27] The new agency would investigate and prosecute itself. [27]

19. 20

    Britain raids illegal crypto traders

    Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, with the tax office and a regional police unit, visited eight sites suspected of illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading, where people buy and sell crypto directly. [28] Anyone trading this way for a living must register with the regulator. [28] No firm doing it in the UK is registered. [28] Separately, the regulator published final rules on 30 June 2026 for a full crypto regime. [29] That regime is expected to start on 25 October 2027. [29]

    Why it matters — Until then, the regulator's warning is that unregistered peer-to-peer traders in the UK are operating illegally. [28] It also calls crypto a high-risk investment. [28]

20. 21

    Accused scam boss sent to China

    Cambodia arrested Chen Zhi, head of the Prince Group, and sent him to China with two other Chinese nationals. [30] The US had charged him the October before with running scams from Cambodia that stole billions in cryptocurrency. [30] US prosecutors seized about 127,271 bitcoin, worth $14bn at the time, the largest bitcoin seizure ever. [31] Victims were contacted online and talked into sending crypto for investments that did not exist. [31]

    Why it matters — Cambodia also put Prince Bank, part of the group, into liquidation. [30] Its customers can still withdraw money and repay loans. [30]

21. 22

    Rules drafted for employer gifts to Trump Accounts

    On 11 August 2026 the US Treasury and tax agency proposed rules for employers who pay into Trump Accounts, a new savings account for children. [32] An employer can add up to $2,500 a year tax-free, within a $5,000 yearly limit for each child. [32][33] The US government adds a one-off $1,000 for US citizens born from 2025 to 2028. [33] The money must track US shares and generally stays locked until the year the child turns 18. [33] Comments close on 25 September, and a public hearing is on 15 October. [32]

    Why it matters — The draft says employers may not offer the benefit in a way that favours highly paid staff or their children. [32]

22. 23

    US court lets Trump fire a consumer watchdog

    The US Supreme Court ruled in June 2026 that President Trump could dismiss Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission, which polices unfair business practices. [34] The ruling lets the US president fire the leaders of dozens of agencies at will, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. [34] In a second case, the justices ruled 5-4 that Lisa Cook, a governor of the US central bank, could not be fired without a chance to answer the allegations. [34]

    Why it matters — The court kept the US central bank's protection from firing at will. [34] The agencies that bring cases on behalf of shoppers and investors lost it. [34]

23. 24

    Heavy users of pay-advance apps pay $421 a year

    Pay-advance apps, also called earned wage access, let hourly workers take part of their pay before payday. [35] A Center for Responsible Lending study found workers often use them for groceries and rent. [35] Heavy users paid $421 a year on average in fees and overdraft charges, almost triple what moderate users paid. [35] Employer versions are often free for a worker who waits a day or two, and charge a few dollars for money at once. [36]

    Why it matters — The amount taken early comes off the next paycheck. [36] So the next pay packet starts short. [36] The study found heavy users taking more advances, quickly, and from several apps at once. [35]