Delivery App Companies Would Rather Sue Than Give Their Workers a Raise

Starting July 12, app-based delivery workers in New York City must be paid at least $17.96/hour, plus tips. Who would object to delivery workers, who put their bodies and health at risk to deliver food through pandemics and climate emergencies, earning a little more than the $15/hour minimum wage? 

DoorDash and Uber have filed separate lawsuits in New York state court suing New York City and seeking to block the law, with Grubhub joining DoorDash's lawsuit.

"This fatally flawed and subjective rulemaking process unsurprisingly worsened these already problematic policies," DoorDash said in a statement. Their lawsuit alleges the new regulations violate a state law against "arbitrary and capricious" agency rules, and they want the state to block it.

The new minimum wage law was set in June, and had already been delayed for months and watered down by the delivery app companies. The City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection initially stated that the workers should make $23.82/hour by 2025. Instead, they will make $19.96 by the time the law is fully phased in.

At the time of the announcement of the law, the City's analysis showed that delivery workers earned just above $7/hour.

"After a 7-month delay in implementation of a minimum pay rate, it's unconscionable that multi-billion dollar companies would now turn around and continue to do everything in their power to prevent New York City's more than 65,000 app-based delivery workers from earning a livable wage," Los Deliveristas Unidos, a labor group which has advocated for minimum wage protections for delivery workers, said in a statement.

DoorDash, in a statement, told Hell Gate, "Bad policies cannot go unchallenged, and we will not stand by and let the harmful impacts of this earnings standard on New York City customers, merchants, and the delivery workers it was intended to support go unchecked."

City Comptroller Brad Lander, who as a City Councilmember sponsored the bill that led to the raise, also released a statement. "No surprise that Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber are out to extract every penny they can from the delivery workers whose labor they rely on: that's the gig business model," Lander wrote. 

He added, "Gig companies have sued New York City repeatedly: to block accessibility requirements for people-with-disabilities, to reduce cruising time, and to prevent the minimum pay requirement for for-hire drivers that became law in 2019. But New York City's for-hire driver minimum pay law benefits drivers without harming ridership, and the delivery-worker minimum pay law will work just as well."

It's true: Uber has sued the City before to block raises for drivers for its rideshare service and successfully held them up. Will the City's rules actually go into effect? We'll find out soon.

Some things we know now:

• In other lawsuit news, a random-ass lawyer from upstate is suing to end outdoor dining in the city.
• And the family of a man killed by a cop driving an official NYPD van is suing the City.
• The NYPD is starting a new unit to combat car theft.
• A Tesla factory in Buffalo that the state spent a billion dollars on turned out to be a "bad deal." Oh well, I'm sure Elon will get 'em next time!
• The City's public housing agency has two new bosses.
• Five hundred workers at New York farms have unionized.
• The beloved Chinatown bookstore Yu & Me Books is raising money to cover the costs of rebuilding after a devastating fire on July 4.
• Heat-related deaths in New York have increased over the last decade, with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene estimating they account for two percent of deaths between May and September.
• Shootings in New York City are down 25 percent this year. 
• Please, let's stop sexualizing Bill de Blasio.
• A guy who jumped off the Fire Island ferry was arrested when he got to shore.
• A child who nearly drowned in Prospect Park lake has died.
• After a man died of a drug overdose on Rikers Island, four staff members there have been suspended.
• There's a new weed dispensary in the Bronx.
• And lastly, samosa burger? Hell yeah: