NYC sets $22.13 minimum pay for app delivery workers
NYC’s delivery floor hit $22.13 an hour, and the cost pressure now lands on apps, restaurants and customers, not just couriers.
App-based delivery in New York City now comes with a hard wage floor: $22.13 an hour before tips for the time workers spend preparing and making deliveries. That rate took effect April 1 and rose from $21.44 the year before, a 3.2% inflation adjustment that underscores how much the city has built delivery pay into the restaurant labor system.
For restaurants that lean on DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Hungry Panda, Fantuan, Instacart and Shipt, the change is not just about couriers getting a raise. It shifts the economics of off-premise service. Apps can pass along higher labor costs through fees, restaurants can respond with menu-price differences between app and in-house sales, and some operators may pull back delivery availability when margins get too thin. The city says restaurants may charge different prices on apps than they do inside the dining room, with limited exceptions, which gives operators room to protect margins but also creates more room for customer pushback when delivery totals climb.
The policy was not improvised. Local Law 115 of 2021 ordered the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to study pay and working conditions for app-based restaurant delivery workers and create a minimum-pay formula, and the agency adopted the final rule in June 2023. Enforcement began in December 2023, and the city says the minimum-pay system has returned more than $700 million to more than 60,000 delivery workers since then. Before enforcement, the city said workers averaged just $5.39 an hour before tips.
That matters inside the restaurant too. When a driver waits outside, a bag gets delayed, or an order is canceled, the kitchen absorbs the disruption even though the wage floor is aimed at the app side of the business. Hosts and managers have to track how third-party delivery affects pickup traffic, bathroom access, and customer complaints about timing. The city says restaurants must comply with bathroom-access agreements for delivery workers when they pick up orders, unless there is a health or safety risk, and denying access can carry a $500 civil penalty.
The compliance picture is still shifting. New York says delivery workers have rights regardless of immigration status, but operators are still sorting out what the app rules mean day to day, especially as the city solicits comments through May 6 on fee caps and related delivery-app issues. Enforcement pressure is real: in January, the city announced a more than $5 million settlement with Uber Eats, Fantuan and HungryPanda affecting nearly 50,000 workers, with as many as 10,000 wrongfully deactivated couriers to be reinstated. In June 2025, Relay also agreed to start paying the city’s minimum rate. For restaurants, delivery is no longer a side channel. It is a regulated labor lane with real costs, and the bill is still moving.
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