Food delivery workers raked in an additional $104 million in tips after the city started enforcing a law to crack down on “deceptive” tipping practices from delivery apps, Mayor Mamdani said Wednesday.
“The days of City Hall accepting corporate abuse as the cost of doing business here in New York City are over,” Mamdani said at a Battery Park press conference.
The increase amounts to a yearly pay increase of $2,287 for each of the city’s roughly 70,000 delivery workers who drive and pedal through the five boroughs to bring meals to city dwellers’ doors, city officials said.
The City Council in 2023 passed a guaranteed minimum wage for delivery workers, now at $22.13 per hour. After that pay rate was implemented, apps including Uber Eats and DoorDash moved the tipping option to after delivery — a move the city claimed cost delivery workers more than $550 million in tips.
The apps sued to block the requirement that they give customers an option to tip at checkout, but federal judges rejected their attempts shortly before the law took effect in January.
Sam Levine, commissioner of the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protections, said that the numbers, which were revealed in a report from his department, show tips nearly doubled after the city started enforcing the law and were “proof” that the apps were wrong about New Yorkers’ willingness to tip delivery drivers.
“Far from being hurt, restaurants have seen orders surge by more than 700,000 each week, compared to before the minimum pay rate took effect,” Levine said. “This shouldn’t be a surprise. New Yorkers are consumers, but we are workers too. We want to support our neighbors who bring meals, groceries, and medicine to our doors. We want New York’s restaurants to thrive.”
The department’s report found that average tips per delivery doubled after the new laws were enforced. The tipping average is still lower than November 2023, just before Uber Eats and DoorDash changed their apps to put tipping as a post-delivery option.
Uber Eats and DoorDash did not immediately respond to requests for comment.