Food delivery companies sue NYC over new rules on minimum pay

After recently instating rules around minimum pay for food delivery workers, New York City now faces multiple lawsuits from those companies, which say they don’t want to be forced into a pay raise.  

DoorDash and Grubhub filed jointly, with Uber Eats filing separately, to block the pay raise. The rules are the first of its kind and would lift the pay rate for app-based delivery workers to $17.96 an hour effective July 12. Currently, workers make an average of $7.09 an hour.

The new rule allows the food delivery services to choose how they want to pay workers — per trip, per hours worked, or another policy created by the company — as long as the minimum pay rate is met.

The food delivery service companies say they want a temporary restraining order in the state Supreme Court of Manhattan to prevent the new wage from kicking in. The companies say the cost would be passed along to consumers at a time when inflation is weakening the economy.

“The city’s entire rule depends on the false assumption that restaurants make no money on deliveries — it must be paused before damaging restaurants, consumers, and the couriers it purports to protect,” Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said in a prepared statement.

Vilda Vera Mayuga, commissioner of New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, said in a statement to the New York Times:
“These workers brave thunderstorms, extreme heat events and risk their lives to deliver for New Yorkers — and we remain committed to delivering for them.”