A Minimum Wage Has Finally Been Set For NYC Food Delivery Workers - The Daily Meal

A Minimum Wage Has Finally Been Set For NYC Food Delivery Workers - The Daily Meal,Food couriers in New York City are getting a significant pay increase, as a minimum wage has finally been set for NYC food delivery workers.

A Minimum Wage Has Finally Been Set For NYC Food Delivery Workers – The Daily Meal

It looks like food delivery workers in New York City are about to get a significant pay increase. According to Gothamist, NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced on June 11 that new regulations concerning the wages of delivery personnel for apps like Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats will go into effect on July 12. These mandate that workers be paid a minimum of $17.96 an hour. The new regulations also stipulate that the pay be further raised to at least $19.96 by 2025.

According to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protections, this is almost three times what New York City’s approximately 60,000 app-based delivery workers currently make on average. The old rate put their average income well below the city’s current minimum wage of $15 an hour.

“This new minimum pay rate, up by almost $13.00 [per] hour, will guarantee these workers and their families can earn a living, access greater economic stability, and help keep our city’s legendary restaurant industry thriving,” Mayor Adams said in a statement (via CNN).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, executives of the delivery apps themselves are less than thrilled. After the mayor’s announcement, DoorDash issued a statement that called the decision “extreme” and “deeply misguided.” DoorDash, which made nearly $6.6 billion in 2022, also said it was considering litigation against the city to attempt to reverse these new regulations.

Labor conditions have long been an issue for delivery workers

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Recent years have seen a good amount of controversy, advocacy, and activism surrounding the issue of how food couriers are treated and compensated. New York City, with its huge number of restaurants and immensely diverse food scene, has unsurprisingly been an epicenter. In 2021, the NYC council passed a sweeping set of laws lauded as a kind of couriers’ bill of rights.

These mandated, among other things, that delivery workers could set limits on how far they would be required to travel for a delivery, set transparency standards for payment and tipping, and be allowed to use the bathrooms of restaurants whose food they deliver. That year also saw New York City pass Local Law 115, which ordered the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to research and report on how couriers were being compensated. These newest regulations make New York City the first in the U.S. to mandate a minimum wage for food couriers.

Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, which backs the Los Deliveristas Unidos labor campaign, celebrated the new rules. “While there’s still work to do,” Guallpa said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, “a minimum pay rate for food delivery workers will transform the lives of thousands of families across the city and deliver long overdue justice for deliveristas.”