Comptroller Lander Criticizes Adams Administration’s 6-Months Delayed Deliverista Subminimum Wage Weakened by App Corporate Lobbying

 

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who as a Council Member lead-sponsored Local Law 115 of 2021 that required the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to promulgate rules establishing minimum payments for food delivery workers by January 1, 2023, issued the following statement on Mayor Adams’ announcement of those rules:

“City Hall acquiesced to the lobbying of multi-billion dollar app companies, delaying the raises owed to deliveristas six months ago and setting a subminimum wage standard that pads corporate profits off the backs of some of the hardest workers in our city.

“Delivery workers should be paid at least the minimum wage after expenses, for every hour they work including the time spent waiting for their next delivery. Today’s watered-down rule fails to require that. Hidden under regulatory double-speak, the rule’s average base wage for a deliverista will be just $12.69 per hour after expenses this year, according to our office’s calculations.

“Workers Justice Project and Los Deliveristas Unidos ran a courageous campaign that commanded attention to the grueling conditions of some of the most vulnerable workers in our city and won a package of groundbreaking legislation, including the first-in-the-nation pay standard. I respect their decision to stand with the Mayor today to announce its overdue adoption.  A subminimum pay standard is better than no pay standard at all.

“But our city can and should do better by the essential workers we applauded during the pandemic and rely on every day.”

Background 

Local Law 115 passed in September 2021. DCWP initially proposed rules in November 2022. The January 1, 2023 deadline passed without a rule in place, so delivery workers did not receive the raise they were owed by law.

After extensive lobbying by DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber, DCWP issued a second, revised set of rules in March 2023 that reduced the pay formula by more than $3 an hour and will result in an average base wage of just $12.69 per hour after expenses.

The Comptroller’s analysis of the adopted rule is available here.