By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced that the City’s minimum pay rate for app-based restaurant delivery workers has increased to $21.44 per hour before tips following a phase in of the pay rate.
The $21.44 rate reflects both the final phase in of the minimum pay rate for app-based delivery workers, which was set to increase to $19.96, as well as an additional inflation adjustment of 7.41 percent. The Adams administration initially set a first-of-its-kind minimum pay rate for app-based restaurant delivery workers in June 2023, which gradually phased in; Tuesday’s increase to $21.44 marks the final phase of increases. The rate provides parity with the state’s minimum wage, accounts for the benefits delivery workers lack access to, and covers the cost of some equipment. Before the minimum pay rate, workers made an average of just $5.39 per hour before tips.
In September 2021, the City Council passed Local Law 115, requiring the City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to study the pay and working conditions of app-based restaurant delivery workers and to establish a minimum pay rate for their work based on the study results. DCWP published its study in 2022, drawing on data from restaurant delivery apps, surveys of delivery workers and restaurants, testimony, extensive discussions with stakeholders on all sides, and publicly available data.
In June 2023, DCWP announced the final minimum pay rule, effective July 12, 2023, following a months-long rulemaking process that included two public hearings and thousands of public comments. In early July, the major delivery apps sued the City, seeking to stop the minimum pay rate from taking effect. In September 2023, the State Supreme Court ruled in the City’s favor, allowing enforcement of the minimum pay rate of $17.96 to begin. The apps appealed the Court’s ruling, and in late November, the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department denied the appeals, paving the way for DCWP to finally begin enforcing the minimum pay rate.
Delivery workers can visit DCWP’s Third-Party Food Delivery Services page or call 311 and say “delivery worker,” to learn more about the minimum pay rate. Workers can also submit questions or file complaints related to the minimum pay rate or other delivery worker laws in multiple languages at nyc.gov/site/dca/workers/worker-rights.page?utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery or by contacting 311.
“Our 60,000-plus deliveristas make New York City run. At any time and in all weather, they are out in the streets bringing us whatever we need. They are overwhelmingly immigrants working day and night to achieve the American Dream,” said Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Woodhaven). “Just as they deliver for us, we will deliver for them. I am proud of my work in Albany to protect their safety, authoring Priscilla’s Law to provide e-bike license plates, and the Safe Delivery Act to prohibit delivery app algorithms from encouraging dangerous e-bike use. Today we celebrate the first-of-its-kind minimum hourly pay rate rising to $21.44 – about four times more than deliveristas were earning before tips. The minimum hourly pay has uplifted tens of thousands of workers, putting almost $1 billion in their pockets so they can stand on their own two feet. Together, we will fight for the welfare, safety, and dignity of all our hard-working deliveristas.”
