NYC judge pauses minimum wage hike for DoorDash, Uber delivery workers

A New York judge on Friday hit the brakes on a planned city-ordered raise for food delivery workers, as he considers a court challenge to the wage hike.

The temporary restraining order, issued by Justice Nicholas Moyne of Manhattan Supreme Court, arrived with the long-awaited minimum wage rate scheduled to take effect next Wednesday. The judge set a court hearing for July 31.

Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub sued the city this week in a bid to halt the hike, which would require companies to pay delivery workers at least $17.96 per hour or an equivalent rate per delivery.

[ DoorDash, Uber sue NYC to halt minimum wage increase for deliveristas ]

The food delivery apps asserted that the new rate, set by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, was based on flawed survey data. The City Council authorized legislation in 2021 that tasked the agency with setting a minimum pay rate for delivery workers.

The commissioner of the Consumer and Worker Protection Department, Vilda Vera Mayuga, said in a statement Friday that she was “extremely disappointed that the apps are delaying the implementation of the minimum pay rate.”

“These apps currently pay workers far below the minimum wage, and this pay rate would help lift thousands of working New Yorkers and their families out of poverty,” she added. “We look forward to a quick decision.”

Food delivery workers currently earn around $11 per hour on average. The city’s minimum wage is $15.

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The workers have historically been treated as independent contractors, not company employees, depriving them of a minimum wage.

Grubhub said in a statement that it was “pleased with the judge’s decision today to delay implementation of a rule that, if allowed to stand, will have serious adverse consequences for delivery partners, consumers and independent businesses.”

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, DoorDash and Grubhub claimed the planned raise for delivery workers would drive cost increases for consumers, damage the companies’ reputations and hurt the workers by depressing demand.

The complaint said the city’s Consumer and Worker Protection Department relied on flawed surveys of workers to produce the minimum wage rate.

“DCWP had pre-judged the outcome of its rulemaking process all along and had set out to ensure increases in delivery-worker pay, as opposed to studying objectively what an appropriate ‘minimum’ payment standard for the industry would be,” the lawsuit said.

City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat who served as the primary sponsor of the minimum wage bill during his time in the Council, blasted the three companies over the lawsuit on Thursday.

“No surprise that Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber are out to extract every penny they can from the delivery workers whose labor they rely on,” Lander said in a statement.