DoorDash workers in NYC claim ongoing wage theft despite recent settlement

DoorDash workers claim the food delivery company is withholding pay and wrongfully deactivating workers, despite a recent multimillion-dollar settlement announced earlier this year.

“We’re seeing how these app delivery companies are literally stealing workers' wages by denying the last week of pay or the last pay before they’re deactivated,” said Ligia Guallpa, the executive director of the Workers Justice Project.

Guallpa and other delivery workers protested DoorDash’s practices Wednesday morning outside the company’s office at 200 Fifth Ave. The demonstration comes just two months after a $17 million settlement with DoorDash announced by New York Attorney General Letitia James. It addressed claims that the company shorted thousands of delivery workers out of tip money paid by DoorDash customers, but only covered the period from 2017 to 2019. DoorDash did not acknowledge any wrongdoing and said the settlement was related to an old pay model that has since been retired.

But workers argue there continue to be systemic problems with the company that go beyond the settlement, including the nonpayment of wages or “deactivation” of workers who are in the midst of their shifts. According to Los Deliveristas Unidos, at least 50 additional workers have come forward with claims of wage theft since November 2024, when 95 workers alleged wage theft in complaints to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. DoorDash has resolved 30 of those complaints, according to the Workers Justice Project.

“We know DoorDash will not reform itself,” Luis Cortes, the director of Los Deliveristas Unidos, said in a statement. “It has proven this through its pattern of noncompliance and its continued exploitation of workers.”

One worker, Daniel Montiel, told a crowd on Wednesday that he is owed more than $3,800, while Ismael Santana Sanchez said the company owed him over $3,300.

Speaking in Spanish through an interpreter, Pedro Cot said he hadn’t been paid for more than $500 in deliveries.

“I’ve been waiting for three months,” Cot said. “Is that right?” The crowd shouted “No!” in unison.

DoorDash spokesperson Eli Scheinholtz said he needed more information in order to speak to individual workers' claims but said the company’s policies for paying delivery workers “are based on the city’s minimum pay rules, plain and simple.”

“There should be no problem issuing payments unless someone fails to provide necessary information, provides inaccurate information, or is attempting to abuse the platform,” Scheinholtz said in a written statement. “If a Dasher ever has an issue, we encourage them to reach out to our dedicated support team so that we can quickly and directly address their concerns.”

Worker advocates said they’re urging the passage of a City Council bill that would require app companies to show how they calculate worker pay.

Wednesday's rally drew from a larger population than past protests outside DoorDash's Midtown office, which were largely made up of Spanish-speaking delivery workers. Speakers addressed the crowd in Chinese, Bangla, Spanish, English, French, and in the case of one Senegalese worker, Wolof.

Guallpa said organizers have been “intensively building solidarity, building connections with these communities” over the past few months.

She said her organization had witnessed a 30% increase in membership over the last year, representing 1,500 additional workers.