NYC Mayor Mamdani reaches record DoorDash settlement for underpaid workers

Settlement is largest of its kind in any US city and is set to affect 260,000 delivery drivers.

The adminstration of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the landmark settlement on Tuesday [Adam Gray/Reuters]

New York City has finalised a more than $131m settlement with DoorDash amid allegations that the delivery company underpaid its workers.

The administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the settlement on Tuesday. It marked the largest settlement for delivery workers in any city in the United States, set to affect 260,000 workers. Of the total, $115m will go directly to the workers, while $16m will go towards civil penalties and other costs.

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A nearly 70-page consent order, provided to Al Jazeera by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), found the San Francisco, California-based delivery giant failed to pay some of its workers the minimum amount required by law between December 2023 and June 2026.

The city expected some of those underpayments to continue through November before corrective measures go into effect, according to the order.

DoorDash confirmed that roughly $6.6m in payments never reached its delivery drivers and that there were more than $5.7m in late payments. A spokesperson for the company told Al Jazeera that it will notify the affected workers in the coming weeks.

The city echoed DoorDash’s statement and said it has already identified the affected workers using DoorDash’s records.

“When a worker earns a wage, they deserve to be paid that wage — not tomorrow, not after a lawsuit, but on time and in full,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The city government said that underpaid workers would receive 200 percent of what they were originally owed.

“A worker who was owed $1,000 but received no payment will receive $3,000. A worker who was paid $1,000 later than allowed under the law will receive $2,000,” a news release announcing the settlement said.

‘Put money back in people’s pockets’

The city began cracking down on delivery driver underpayments under Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams.

His administration established a first-of-its-kind minimum-pay rule for app-based delivery workers in 2023.

Delivery companies, including DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber, were required to meet a minimum pay rate for covered work.

The rule initially called for a minimum pay rate of $17.96 per hour and was set to increase to $19.96 per hour when fully implemented in 2025.

Samuel Levine of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) said that the settlement is a result of the Mamdani administration expanding its enforcement capabilities after increasing staff when he took office in January.

“What we’ve been able to show, particularly over the last nine months of the Mamdani administration, is that by investing directly and bringing in the best lawyers, investigators, data scientists, and economists to the government, we can cut through a lot of the noise, identify violations when they happen, and put money back in people’s pockets,” Levine told Al Jazeera.

New York is not the only city in the US to attempt to address delivery driver underpayments.

Seattle, Washington has also adopted a minimum-payment system. Starting in 2024, the city began using data from delivery platforms in an effort to enforce it.

In August, Uber Eats agreed to pay nearly $4.4m to settle allegations that the platform violated the city’s minimum-pay rules for delivery workers, affecting 14,000 workers.

Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS) said Uber Eats failed to provide required minimum payments for some cancelled orders, including instances when a driver had already arrived at a restaurant to pick up food.

Seattle also alleged that Uber Eats failed to provide minimum payments when either the pick-up or drop-off location was outside of the city limits.

该和解协议是美国城市中规模最大的同类协议，预计将影响 26 万名送货司机。

纽约市长 Zohran Mamdani 的政府于周二宣布了具有里程碑意义的解决方案 [Adam Gray/路透社]

纽约市与 DoorDash 达成超过 1.31 亿美元的和解协议，此前有指控称这家外卖公司拖欠员工工资。

佐赫兰·马姆达尼市长办公室周二宣布了这项和解协议。这是美国城市中外卖员获得的最大一笔和解金，将惠及26万名外卖员。其中，1.15亿美元将直接支付给外卖员，1600万美元将用于支付民事罚款和其他费用。

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旧金山市消费者和工人保护部 (DCWP) 向半岛电视台提供的一份近 70 页的同意令显示，这家总部位于加利福尼亚州旧金山的送货巨头在 2023 年 12 月至 2026 年 6 月期间，未能向部分员工支付法律规定的最低工资。

根据该命令，市政府预计部分欠款情况将持续到 11 月，之后才会采取纠正措施。

DoorDash证实，约有660万美元的款项从未到达其送餐员手中，另有超过570万美元的款项被延迟支付。该公司发言人告诉半岛电视台，将在未来几周内通知受影响的员工。

该市附和了 DoorDash 的声明，并表示已利用 DoorDash 的记录确定了受影响的员工。

“当工人挣到工资时，他们就应该得到应有的工资——不是明天，也不是在打官司之后，而是按时足额支付，”市长佐兰·马姆达尼在周二的新闻发布会上说。

市政府表示，工资被拖欠的工人将获得其原先应得工资的200%。

“一名被拖欠1000美元但未收到付款的工人将获得3000美元。一名被拖欠1000美元但付款时间晚于法律允许期限的工人将获得2000美元，”一份宣布和解协议的新闻稿中写道。

“把钱放回人们的口袋里”

在马姆达尼的前任埃里克·亚当斯执政期间，该市开始严厉打击送货司机工资过低的现象。

他的政府于 2023 年为通过应用程序送餐的工人制定了首个最低工资规定。

包括 DoorDash、Grubhub 和 Uber 在内的外卖公司必须达到规定的最低工资标准。

该规定最初要求最低时薪为 17.96 美元，并计划在 2025 年全面实施时提高到每小时 19.96 美元。

消费者和工人保护部 (DCWP) 的塞缪尔·莱文表示，该和解协议是马姆达尼政府在 1 月份上任后增加工作人员，扩大执法能力的结果。

莱文告诉半岛电视台：“尤其是在马姆达尼政府执政的过去九个月里，我们已经证明，通过直接投资，并将最优秀的律师、调查员、数据科学家和经济学家引入政府，我们可以排除很多干扰因素，在违规行为发生时就发现它们，并将钱还到人们的口袋里。”

纽约并不是美国唯一一个试图解决送货司机工资过低问题的城市。

华盛顿州西雅图市也采用了最低支付标准。从2024年开始，该市开始利用外卖平台的数据来加强对最低支付标准的执行。

8 月，Uber Eats 同意支付近 440 万美元，以了结该平台违反纽约市送餐员最低工资规定的指控，此举影响了 14,000 名送餐员。

西雅图劳动标准办公室 (OLS) 表示，Uber Eats 未能为一些取消的订单支付所需的最低款项，其中包括司机已经到达餐厅取餐的情况。

西雅图方面还指控 Uber Eats 在取餐或送餐地点位于市界之外时，未能支付最低付款。