NYC Increases App-Based Food Delivery Workers’ Minimum Wage to $17.96 Per Hour

Starting on July 12, 2023, over 60,000 food delivery workers employed by apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub in New York City must be paid at least $17.96 per hour, not including tips.  As of April 2025, the mandatory hourly pay will increase to $19.96 per hour. 

New York City will allow the food delivery apps to use their discretion as to how the $17.96 hourly threshold is met.  For example, the delivery apps can pay delivery workers per trip, per hour worked, or through their own arrangement, but cannot include tips delivery workers receive as part of their calculation.  The wage increase follows a slew of bills that the City passed in September 2021 to improve working conditions for app-based food delivery workers and has been lauded by proponents as long overdue. 

“Our delivery workers have consistently delivered for us — now, we are delivering for them,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.  “The ones that bring you pizza in the snow, and that Thai food you like in the rain,” said Adams. “This new minimum pay rate will guarantee these workers, and their families, can earn a living. They should not be delivering food to your household, if they can’t put food on the plate in their household.”

While the hourly rate is less than the $23.82 hourly wage the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection initially proposed in November 2022, the increase to $17.96 is nearly $3 more than the $15 minimum wage other employees in the City, Long Island, and Westchester County are paid, and nearly $11 more than $7.09, the average hourly rate app-based food delivery workers currently make. 

Workers who believe their employer is improperly denying them minimum wages, or subjecting them to other workplace violations, should seek legal counsel to analyze their potential claims.