New York City began mandating its first minimum wage for app-based delivery workers Monday, forcing a long-awaited shift in how popular platforms like Uber, Grubhub and DoorDash pay gig workers.
The city set a minimum rate of $19.96 per hour Sunday, with plans to fully implement the new standard by April 1, 2025. With some app-based delivery workers across the city relying primarily on tips to make their livings, earning an average of $7.09 per hour, advocates say the new rule is a step in the right direction.
“This is pretty much changing not only the course of history, but … guaranteeing and expanding protections for gig workers,” said Ligia Guallpa, the director of the New York-based Workers Justice Project, which helped lead the advocacy efforts for a minimum wage.
The mandate, which took effect Monday, will start at $17.96 per hour, increase to the standard by the 2025 deadline and adjust annually for inflation, the city said in a news release. As long as delivery apps pay workers the minimum rate on average, they have the option to pay per trip or per hour worked or to develop their own formulas.
Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday in announcing the measures that delivery workers have long been essential to the city’s health and safety, particularly during the pandemic.
“Those who I saw during the years of Covid, when people were able to shelter in place, the reason they were able to shelter in place is because these men and women were delivering food and services to them,” he said. “We had two New Yorks: Those who were able to stay home and those who created the environment so you were able to stay home, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. They delivered for us. Now we are delivering for them. It is the right thing to do, and we are proud of it.”
The announcement comes after years of advocacy from local community-based organizations and delivery workers. About 65,000 app-based delivery workers, often immigrants from South and East Asia, Latin…
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