NYC launches minimum pay mandate for food delivery workers

Food delivery workers in the five boroughs will earn nearly $18 per hour beginning in July, rising to $20 by 2025, as part of New York City's first-in-the-nation minimum pay mandate for app-based restaurant employees.

The mandate, announced on Sunday by Mayor Eric Adams, provides a substantial raise to the city's more than 60,000 delivery workers, who currently earn $7.09 per hour on average.

"This new minimum pay rate guarantees these workers and their families can earn a living," Adams said at a Manhattan news conference. "They should not be delivering food to your household and they can't put food on the plate in their household."

The pay rate, adjusted annually for inflation, will be $17.96 when it takes effect on July 12, and grow to $19.96 when fully phased-in on April 1, 2025, officials said.

Long Island does not have a similar minimum pay rate for its app-based delivery workers.

Delivery apps will have the option to pay workers per trip, at a rate of approximately $0.50 cents per minute, or per hour, as long as employees earn the minimum rate.

Spokespersons for DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats criticized the plan, arguing that it would force them to increase prices on customers and ultimately lead to fewer jobs for workers.

"Given the broken process that resulted in such an extreme final minimum pay rule, we will continue to explore all paths forward — including litigation — to ensure we continue to best support Dashers and protect the flexibility that so many delivery workers like them depend on," DoorDash said in a statement.

In 2021, the New York City Council passed legislation requiring the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to study app-based restaurant delivery workers' pay and working conditions.

Vilda Vera Mayuga, commissioner of the DCWP, said the new pay rate takes into consideration that app-based delivery workers are classified as independent contractors who do not receive workers' compensation insurance or paid time off and don't get reimbursed for expenses such as purchasing insulated delivery bags.

"Throughout the pandemic, they provided warm meals directly to our doors, helping so many of us to stay safe and healthy inside our homes and providing a crucial lifeline that allowed so many of our beloved restaurants to stay open for business during a time of such uncertainty," Mayuga said. "Ensuring these workers earn a dignified pay is an issue of equity."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.