Dear New Yorkers,

Keep tipping your food delivery app workers. The powerful, multi-million-dollar food app companies are already concocting new schemes to prevent workers from being paid what they deserve.

Yes, the same week we celebrated New York City's new minimum pay rate for “deliveristas”—a huge, first-in-the-nation win for workers—the apps responded by overhauling how tips are processed.

Doordash now only provides a tipping option after payment is completed, while UberEats now only offers a tipping option after the food has been delivered. And it gets worse.

This is food delivery companies’ wretched way of using tips to meet the minimum pay requirement of $17.96 per hour. It’s going to take work to pressure the companies not to retaliate by withholding tips, deactivating users, or using confusing language to trick workers.

The landmark victory of a minimum pay requirement has been years in the making. Throughout the pandemic, delivery workers risked their lives to provide food to New Yorkers. They continued to provide amidst extreme weather (like extreme flooding) and health and safety risks on the streets—all at subminimum wages and without benefits.

Out of that experience, food delivery app workers organized a moving and powerful campaign with Workers Justice Project and Los Deliveristas Unidos. They captured the attention of New Yorkers, demanding justice and fair treatment. This led to a package of bills including Local Law 115, which I was proud to sponsor as a City Council Member, and establishes a minimum pay rate.

After being held up in court multiple times this year, a minimum pay rate of $17.96 per hour finally became a reality as we celebrated this week. But as we’re seeing, the multi-million-dollar app companies are already moving to extract every dollar from workers as they can.

The fight continues. If you’re with me, will you send a message to Doordash, Uber, GrubHub, and Seamless to pay deliveristas what they deserve and stop manipulating tips?

I'll continue to stand with deliveristas and organize to pressure the companies into paying delivery workers what they’re owed. I hope you will, too.

In solidarity,

Brad