Grocery delivery workers are now guaranteed minimum pay under new City Council laws

The New York City Council passed a package of bills Monday to expand wage protections for delivery workers and extend a groundbreaking minimum pay requirement to thousands who deliver groceries on apps like Instacart.

It's the second major legislative win for the city’s more than 80,000 delivery workers after organizers secured a guaranteed minimum hourly pay rate in 2021.

The bills will require apps to request tipping when a customer places an order, rather than after the food is delivered. They will also require companies to restore the range for suggested tips to begin at 10%. The hourly minimum pay is currently $21.44 per hour.

“It’s a great victory because we’ve been fighting for a long time to create worker protections,” said delivery worker William Medina, 40.

Delivery workers said that following the landmark minimum pay rule, app companies made it harder for customers to tip, including by moving the tipping option to after food was delivered and lowering the suggested tipping amounts. Before the increase, delivery drivers made an average of $5.39 an hour before tips, according to city estimates.

“Tipping still complements every time a deliverista is making that last mile delivery in the snow, in the middle of traffic, in the middle of a heat wave,” said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the nonprofit Worker’s Justice Project. “[Tipping] can really go a long way to ensure workers can still take home a dignified pay.”

City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who sponsored the bill to expand minimum pay to grocery delivery workers, said it was the right thing to do.

“They do similar tasks, they have similar risks and they face similar exploitation by apps,” she said at a rally on the steps of City Hall before the vote. “If your business model cannot survive without paying minimum pay wage to workers, it is not a successful one.”

An Instacart spokesperson called the legislation to expand the minimum pay laws to grocery delivery workers “unconscionable” and said the city’s numbers showed it would drive up grocery delivery costs by 46%.

The company spokesperson warned that the added costs could make grocery delivery less accessible for families and communities already struggling with the rising price of food and basic necessities.

A spokesperson for Grubhub said the company is working closely with delivery worker advocates and the City Council and plans to continue collaborating to ensure the new rules are clear, practical and centered on the needs of delivery workers.

A City Hall spokesperson said Mayor Eric Adams was reviewing the legislation.

This story has been updated with comment from City Hall.