New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga recently 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.
He said the $21.44 rate reflects the final phase-in of the minimum pay rate for app-based delivery workers, which was set to increase to $19.96 and an additional inflation adjustment of 7.41 %.
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; today’s increase to $21.44 marks the final phase of increases.
The politician said 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. Since DCWP began enforcing the minimum pay rate in December 2023, apps have paid restaurant delivery workers an additional $700 million in wages.
“Our administration works every day to help put money back into New Yorkers’ pockets, and that includes our city’s delivery workers,” said Mayor Adams.
“Our first-in-the-nation minimum pay rate is doing exactly that, giving hundreds of millions of dollars back to deliver workers who drive at all hours of the day and through all types of weather to get New Yorkers the food and goods they need. We are proud to have not only spearheaded this groundbreaking policy but to have made life easier for delivery workers and their families all across the five boroughs.”
“Providing a stable and predictable minimum pay rate for some of our hardest working New Yorkers has been one of the highlights of our administration’s agenda for working people. Thank you to Commissioner Mayuga and the entire team at DCWP for their work in setting and now fully implementing this minimum pay rate,“ said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Adolfo Carrión, Jr.
“I also want to extend my gratitude to the partners and advocates who have helped us get to this moment — through our collective efforts, we have already helped our app-based delivery worker community secure over $700 million in additional wages, and there’s nowhere to go but up.”
“Delivery workers, like all workers, deserve to be paid fair wages for their labor,“ said DCWP Commissioner Mayuga.
“The pay rate has been a success, increasing pay for hard-working New Yorkers and keeping restaurant delivery profitable for the apps that rely on these workers. Thank you to the tens of thousands of delivery workers and advocates who fought hard to make this a reality.”
In September 2021, the New York City Council passed Local Law 115, requiring DCWP to study the pay and working conditions of app-based restaurant delivery workers and establish a minimum pay rate 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 New York 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 State Supreme Court’s ruling. In late November, the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department denied the appeals, finally paving the way for DCWP to begin enforcing the minimum pay rate.
This minimum pay rate is just one part of the city’s holistic approach to improving working conditions for delivery workers.
In February 2024, Mayor Adams and the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) announced five public e-battery charging locations as part of the city’s six-month pilot program to give delivery workers a safe place to charge lithium-ion batteries.
Following the pilot’s success, DOT outlined the steps to keep delivery works safe, including a public e-bike charging program at approximately 173 New York City Housing Authority locations. The Adams administration has also launched a program for the first-of-its-kind street Deliveristas Hubs, utilizing existing infrastructure to provide a place for workers to rest and recharge.
Mayor Adams’ “Charge Safe, Ride Safe: New York City’s Electric Micromobility Action Plan” helped cut lithium-ion battery fire deaths by 72 % since its introduction in 2023.
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 about the minimum pay rate or other delivery worker laws in multiple languages online 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 New York State Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar.
“Just as they deliver for us, we will deliver for them. I am proud of my work in Albany to protect their safety. I authorize Priscilla’s Law to provide e-bike license plates and the Safe Delivery Act prohibiting 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.”
“The 2025 pay increase for app-based delivery workers represents yet another important milestone in formally recognizing the enormous contribution that these essential workers make to New York City and is itself an essential contribution to professionalizing their workforce and ensuring their dignity, power, and respect,“ said Ligia Guallpa, executive director, Worker’s Justice Project; co-founder, Los Deliveristas Unidos.
“The minimum pay requirement provides a fair wage and real material benefits for struggling workers who must pay all their own operating costs and benefits in one of the most dangerous occupations in the city while allowing the app delivery industry to continue its meteoric growth in New York. It provides deliveristas with the power to collectively hold their employers accountable and a first-in-the nation, historic model for how empowering workers can improve the on-demand industry. We are grateful to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for taking this historic stand with New York’s deliveristas and for holding the app companies accountable for making this industry fairer, more organized, and more just,“ said the statement.
“Delivery workers have long been essential to New York City while being grossly underpaid and subjected to long hours in dangerous working conditions,“ said Elizabeth Jordan, co-legal director of Make the Road NY. “We applaud the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection on their leadership to guarantee delivery workers in New York City a minimum pay rate and other basic protections and standing strong against the multi-billion dollar app companies who for years have fought to keep their exploitative model in place.“
“We thank Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga and her team from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for their steadfast commitment to uplifting app-based restaurant delivery workers,“ said Yesenia Mata, executive director La Colmena.
“At La Colmena, we believe all workers — regardless of immigration status — deserve a fair, living wage for their labor. This increase to $21.44 an hour is a monumental step toward economic dignity for thousands of workers. We are proud to stand behind this effort and continue advocating until every worker in New York City is treated with the respect and fairness they deserve,“ said the statement.
