Most gig workers accept almost every offer that comes in, then wonder why the week felt busy but paid badly. The fix is a floor: a minimum net profit per real hour you will accept, decided before the shift starts, not in the middle of it.

A floor is not a wish. Work it out from your own numbers. Start with what you need to earn in a week after costs, divided by the real hours you can work. Then test each offer against it: pay minus fuel, tolls, parking, food, and a share for vehicle wear, divided by real hours. Real hours include driving to the pickup, waiting, and dead miles — not just the paid part of the job.

Here is a clearly labelled example, not a real shift: an offer pays $24 for what looks like 1.5 hours. Fuel and tolls take $6, and waiting plus driving to the pickup add 30 minutes of real time. That is $18 over 2 real hours, or $9 per real hour. If your floor is $15 per real hour, that offer is a no, even though $24 sounded fine on its own.

Saying no is the hard part. Two things make it easier. First, decide the floor when you are calm, not while an offer is flashing on your screen. Second, keep a small count: how many offers you declined this week, and what you earned on the work you took instead. After two weeks, compare. Did declining below-floor offers actually raise your weekly net, or did you sit idle too long? Adjust the floor from that evidence, not from a feeling.

A floor also protects your week from one bad habit: chasing a big single payout that eats the whole evening. A $60 job that takes four real hours after costs is worse than two $35 jobs that take two real hours each. The floor makes that comparison automatic, before you accept.

Try it for two weeks. Pick your floor, write it down, and test every offer against it. If the week ends with fewer hours worked and more money kept, the floor is doing its job.

I built a free tool that does this math for me. ShiftLog is a free Android app for gig workers and drivers: it tracks each shift's pay, costs, and real hours and shows your actual net profit, so you can see which shifts are worth taking. It works offline and needs no account. You can get it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shiftlog.app