NYC food app delivery workers to get pay raise as Mayor Adams implements overdue rate hike

Chris Sommerfeldt, Leonard Greene, New York Daily News
Updated ·2 min read
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There’s a pay raise on the menu for New York City food delivery workers.

Mayor Adams and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga on Sunday announced a new minimum pay rate structure for app-based restaurant delivery workers — a first for any city in the country.

The workers will eventually earn $19.96 an hour compared to the current average of $7.09 an hour.

“Our delivery workers have consistently delivered for us — now, we are delivering for them,” Adams said in a statement. “This new minimum pay rate ... 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.”

The rate will be $17.96 an hour when the policy begins July 12, going up to nearly $20 in spring 2025, officials said.

Unlike most food deliveries which come on time, the new rate structure was behind schedule.

Under a bill passed by the City Council, the city was supposed to have implemented the pay structure by Jan. 1 for workers using apps such as DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats.

City Comptroller Brad Lander reminded officials three months ago that the city had missed its deadline.

“Every day of delay is money lost for delivery workers who have long deserved a raise,” Lander said in a letter to Mayuga in March.

“App-based delivery workers risked their lives through the pandemic to provide food to New Yorkers, enabling people to remain in their homes during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City. They continue to provide food and other goods to New Yorkers every day amid extreme weather and health and safety risks on the streets that are functionally their workplace — all at subminimum wages and without benefits.”

Small business owners have argued that such a pay hike could cut into profits while the workers point to the danger involved in deliveries.

Last year, at least 18 city delivery workers — all immigrant men — died on the job. They included Ricardo Solano, 31, who was found dead after an alleged robbery. Christian Castelan, 21, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. He was his mother’s sole supporter.

Thirty-year-old Daniel Vidal died after he was fatally struck by a truck driver. Tiburcio “Tibo” Castillo, 37, was killed while biking home from work, leaving behind his wife and four children.

Mayuga hailed the new minimum wage as “a historic win for New York City’s delivery workers, who have done so much for all of us through rain, snow, and throughout the pandemic.”

“When the rate takes full effect, workers will make three times as much as they do now,” she added. “I am proud that our city has fulfilled its promise to provide more stability and protections for 60,000 workers and get them a dignified pay rate.”