App Developers in Seattle Have an Ordinance for the Offer Screen

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

In 2026 a covered delivery offer in Seattle cannot pay less than $5.34 per offer or the per-minute and per-mile amounts added up, whichever is greater, and the worker has to see the offer’s details before tapping yes. App developers in Seattle building for app-based workers answer to two city ordinances, and both show up as screens. This page builds the offer screen line by line, then the deactivation flow, then gives the cost. Progression is based in New York, builds for Seattle companies remotely, and offers on-site sessions on request.

$5.34 on a delivery offer

A courier is parked outside a restaurant on Capitol Hill when an offer lands on her phone. It shows a number in large type, and the number is the first thing she reads.

The offer above is an illustration. The line that is missing is the one a worker needs to check the number: how long the trip is expected to take. The ordinance says what a worker is owed per minute and per mile, so a pay figure without them is hard to test.

What app developers in Seattle have to build by law

Two Seattle ordinances shape the screens of a gig app. The App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance (SMC 8.37) took effect on January 13, 2024. The App-Based Worker Deactivation Rights Ordinance (SMC 8.40) took effect on January 1, 2025, with administrative rules effective June 24, 2025. The Office of Labor Standards also keeps an overview of all the app-based worker ordinances.

The ordinances place their duties on covered network companies, not on the developers they hire. Even so, the duties land on screens, calculations and records, and those are what a developer builds. App developers in Seattle who ask the company’s counsel at the start save themselves a rebuild at the end.

Whether a given company or worker is covered is not something a developer decides. Ask counsel, and ask the Office if counsel is unsure.

What rights does the Office list?

The Office sorts the key rights into minimum payment, transparency and flexibility. Transparency means upfront disclosure of offer information and a right to receipts and payment records. Flexibility means access to the platform without limits other than health and safety, no penalty for limiting availability or refusing offers, and the right to cancel an offer with cause.

Who is the page for?

Product leads at delivery, ride and service apps, and the teams that build for them. A developer who has never read an ordinance can still follow the list of screens.

The offer screen, line by line

An offer screen has four jobs: show what the offer pays, show the time and distance behind it, make declining free of penalty, and keep cancelling with cause possible. Each job maps to one of the rights above.

Transparency includes upfront disclosure of offer information, as the Office describes it. The exact items are in the ordinance and the Office’s rules, so build from those texts with counsel, not from this table alone.

Line 1: pay for the offer

Network companies pay the greater of two figures: the per-minute and per-mile amounts together, or the per-offer amount. The amounts change each year, so keep them in one settings table with the year beside each row.

The Office has not set the 2027 per-mile amount. Build the settings table so a new figure can be entered without a release.

Line 2: the distance and time

Show the miles and the estimated minutes on the same screen as the pay. They are the inputs to the calculation, and a worker who can see them can see whether the offer clears the minimum.

Line 3: what happens if the worker declines

The Office lists the right not to be penalized for limiting availability or refusing offers. In practice that means the decline button does nothing but decline. No warning text, no timer pressure, no lower ranking for the next offer.

• Remove copy that suggests a penalty for declining.
• Review any score or ranking that reads declines as a negative.
• Keep the decline button as easy to tap as the accept button.
• Ask counsel about any change to how offers are sorted after a decline.

Line 4: cancelling with cause

A worker has the right to cancel an offer with cause. The app needs a cancel path that takes a reason, saves it and does not treat a valid cause as a strike. Counsel can say which causes the ordinance contemplates.

Mobile app development in Seattle, priced for offer screens

Cost follows scope. An offer screen with a settings table is a small piece of a worker app, and the pieces that cost more are the calculation engine, the records feed to the city and the challenge flow.

Bands by app complexity

The bands run from the typical low to the published high for each kind of app.

Progression quotes after a written scope. Our app development cost page explains what moves a quote. We list no Seattle premium, and the minimum payment amounts above are the city’s figures, not our prices.

Notice of Rights in the worker’s language

The Office says the Notice of Rights for App-Based Workers must be made available in the network company’s worker platform in English and in the primary language spoken by the worker. That is a design requirement as much as a legal one: the app has to know which language each worker uses and show the notice in it.

The Office provides translations of the Notice in Amharic, Arabic, Chinese (traditional), French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrigna, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. We give no sample wording here, and a developer should not translate the Notice itself. Use the Office’s versions.

• Store the worker’s primary language as a setting the worker can change.
• Show the Notice inside the app, not only in an email or a link.
• Keep a record of when the Notice was shown.
• Ask the Office or counsel which language versions your workers need.

The deactivation flow

The Office defines a deactivation as a permanent or temporary blocking of a worker’s ability to perform services for a network company. The deactivation ordinance asks for policies, procedure, notice, access to records and a way to challenge.

Before most deactivations

A network company must provide its deactivation policies, which must describe what may lead to deactivation and be reasonably related to safe and efficient operations. It must follow certain procedural steps before most deactivations, and give notice before most deactivations along with access to the records that substantiate them.

Challenges and records

Companies must set up a process for workers to challenge a deactivation. An eligible worker who is deactivated on or after January 1, 2025 and thinks it unwarranted can challenge through the company within 90 days of receiving notice, and can sue after the company’s initial response or 14 days after submitting the challenge.

The cards describe screens, not the ordinance’s wording. From January 1, 2025 through May 31, 2027, the Office enforces only limited procedural requirements, such as notice, access to records and the required steps. Starting June 1, 2027, it may investigate whether a deactivation was for a permissible reason.

Records the app has to send the city

Covered network companies must transmit records to the Office on a quarterly basis. The Office publishes a Records Reporting Guide for network companies that describes the data. Companies must also be licensed with the City’s Finance and Administrative Services Department and pay a 10-cent fee for each covered order or service.

App development in Seattle for a covered company therefore includes a reporting job: collect the fields the guide lists, check them and send them on schedule. Build the export early, because it needs data from the offer screen, the pay calculation and the deactivation flow.

• Read the Records Reporting Guide with the data team before the schema is set.
• Count covered orders in a way that matches the fee.
• Keep an export history showing what was sent and when.
• Put one named person in charge of each quarterly transmission.

A brief for a Seattle worker app

Copy this card into a document and fill it in before the first sprint. Seattle app developers who start from a completed card can estimate the work from a written scope, and counsel gets a short list to review.

Send the finished card with a link to your current app. Ask counsel about coverage and wording before launch. Our app development agency page describes the build that follows.

Who answers when a worker asks why?

A worker who is deactivated or sees a short offer will contact support. The support team needs a screen that shows the same offer and the same records the worker saw, with the calculation worked out.

• Give support read access to the same screens the worker sees.
• Stamp every support action with a person and a time.
• Keep a template for the challenge acknowledgment, reviewed by counsel.
• Report the average time to answer a challenge, so slow answers show up.

What should the settings screen for pay amounts hold?

The pay calculation rests on a few numbers that change every year. A small settings screen, owned by operations and logged, keeps them out of code.

• One row per year, with per-minute, per-mile and per-offer amounts.
• An effective date for each row, so the right year applies on a given day.
• A blank allowed for a value the Office has not set yet, with a warning to staff.
• A change log that shows who edited what, and when.
• A test offer that shows the calculation before a new row goes live.

The 2027 per-mile amount is not yet determined, so a table that cannot hold a blank will break when the new year comes.

What goes into the pay breakdown?

Time, distance, the per-minute and per-mile amounts used, the per-offer amount and which figure won. A breakdown that a worker can scan in five seconds answers most disputes before they start.

Where is the line between design and law?

Counsel decides what the ordinance requires. The developer decides how the screen shows it. Keep the two conversations separate, and put the answers in writing.

How should a team test the offer screen?

Run test offers with known minutes and miles and check that the figure shown is the larger of the two calculations. Try offers that tie, offers just below the per-offer amount and offers with no time estimate.

• Test an offer where the per-offer amount wins.
• Test an offer where minutes and miles win.
• Test a blank per-mile value in a settings row.
• Test the screen in each language the Notice supports.
• Save the test results with the build number.

Related services and guides

Pages that sit beside this build list:

• App development agency
• App development cost
• Web design in Seattle
• SEO in Seattle
• Software development company

Frequently asked questions