New York City Sets First Minimum Wage for Delivery Workers: $18 Per Hour

For anyone who has walked around New York, they are impossible to miss. Pedaling or rolling at breakneck speed, most of the time without a helmet, taking all the risks, the delivery men swarm everywhere and look like a veritable army. Since the pandemic, their numbers have more than doubled – reportedly from 25,000 to 60,000, with that number continuing to grow exponentially. With little social protection, they earn an average of 11 dollars an hour, 4 dollars less than the minimum wage of 15 dollars established in New York. A law this Sunday corrects this injustice. Effective June 12, a minimum hourly wage of $18 has been set for all delivery workers. And the town hall has indicated that in 2025 this salary should rise to 20 dollars and be indexed to inflation.

Before the introduction of this law, New York was already a pioneer in the United States in terms of protecting couriers. Thus, in September 2021, regulations were adopted to loosen the noose that chained them to applications. Their contract – when it existed – gave a certain ascendancy to the apps, by making delivery people their obligated, forced to accumulate orders without guarantee of minimum income from their employer. If the law of 2021 did not have a great impact outside New York, it did however produce some advances such as those to clear them of the purchase of their work tool – the insulated bag –, to impose on restaurants to have toilets that can accommodate them, and to have the possibility of refusing deliveries in places that they would consider dangerous for their safety.

“It’s huge and even historic”

Unsurprisingly in a country where workers are poorly protected, this minimum wage obligation has sparked an outcry from companies. Asked by the New York Times, Kristin Sharp, the general manager of Flex, an association that represents the main delivery applications (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instacart) is particularly critical. According to her, this salary increase will lead to an increase in delivery costs for customers and a probable reduction in tips for workers. Additional costs which could, according to her, suffocate the environment, reduce demand and, to curb the increase in their loads, applications could limit the access of certain delivery people who only connect to it sporadically.

For Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, a group of lawyers specializing in workers’ rights which defended this law, this measure represents real progress for an often precarious profession: “This is enormous and even historic for an entire activity which until then had not benefited from any protection, she told the New York Times. It will have a significant impact on workers and their families.»

Lobby pressure

While 42% of delivery people believe they have been underpaid, or not paid at all, 45% say they have had an accident during their working hours and just over 75% say they have used their own money to pay their health insurance, more in-depth changes were nevertheless expected, in particular concerning health expenses or social protection which remain the responsibility of delivery people.

For Brad Lander, a member of the municipal team, this law remains insufficient and has been, according to him, watered down under the increasingly significant pressure of the lobbies. He asserts at New York Times that the minimum wage will ultimately be closer to 13 dollars than the 18 promised by the town hall because when the couriers connect to several applications at the same time – which they often do to be able to earn enough money – fees additional costs will be charged to them. What reduce the real gain expected with this new measure which is debated among the various actors. Everyone agrees, however, that this is a first step.