Cost of Living Crisis: Why Argentina’s App Drivers Must Deliver 450+ Orders Monthly Just to Stay Out of Poverty

20 August 2026

During the first quarter of 2026, a delivery driver in Argentina had to make 453 deliveries a month to cover the basic food basket and avoid falling into poverty. That’s 15 deliveries daily without any off days!

A study, conducted by the Encuentro Foundation, showed that delivery drivers earned an average $3,165.2 per delivery, based on data from Rappi and Pedidos Ya.

In June, a typical four-person household required $1,531,473 based on the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses' (INDEC) Total Basic Food Basket (CBT) – to cover this, a delivery driver had to fulfill 453 orders. This was just a marginal reduction of one order compared to 454 orders in 2025.

The report emphasises that when per-delivery earnings don't keep pace with price increases, the cost-to-income ratio steadily rises. In other words, steep inflation in Argentina is forcing app delivery workers to work longer hours just to cover basic living costs.

In line with the previous quarter, the gap between platforms continued to widen during the first quarter of 2026. While Rappi driver pay unchanged since October 2025, PedidosYa raising the average driver payout per delivery from $3,659 to $3,924 in March. That contributed to the rise in As a result, the average driver payout in Encuentro’s study from $3,033 to $3,165, partially offsetting the increase in reference prices.

An Increasingly Harsh Reality

In an increasingly difficult economy, where job insecurity is a reality, platform workers face multiple and complex problems. On the one hand, the decrease in orders and the increase in gig workers on the streets have created a bottleneck. Added to this is another adversity: delivery workers must go into debt even before starting gig work and to continue covering their expenses.

A recent report from the Central Bank of Argentina revealed that gig workers have accumulated an average debt of nearly $900,000. Workers access these loans mainly to acquire bicycles and motorcycles to start delivery work, or to carry out repairs necessary to continue their activity.

This gap between workers' income and the inflation of basic goods, rent, and vehicle maintenance sets the tone for the increasing precarity in today's gig economy. To fully understand this phenomenon, analyzing operating costs versus driver earnings per delivery has become an essential indicator of the loss of purchasing power and the regulatory challenges facing the urban labor sector in the country.