New York City has finalized a settlement of over $131 million with DoorDash following allegations that the delivery company underpaid its workers. This settlement is reported to be the largest of its kind for delivery workers in any U.S. city and is expected to affect approximately 260,000 delivery drivers. Of the total settlement amount, $115 million will be distributed directly to the workers, while $16 million will be allocated for civil penalties and other associated costs.
A nearly 70-page consent order from the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) indicated that DoorDash, based in San Francisco, California, failed to pay some workers the legally required minimum wage between December 2023 and June 2026. The city anticipates that some underpayments may continue until corrective measures are implemented in November.
DoorDash acknowledged that around $6.6 million in payments did not reach its delivery drivers, along with more than $5.7 million in late payments. A spokesperson for DoorDash stated that the company will inform the affected workers in the coming weeks. The city confirmed that it has already identified the impacted workers using DoorDash’s records.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani emphasized the importance of timely wage payment, stating, "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," during a news conference.
The settlement stipulates that underpaid workers will receive 200 percent of the amount they were originally owed. For example, a worker owed $1,000 who received no payment will now receive $3,000, while a worker who was paid late will receive $2,000.
The city began its efforts to address delivery driver underpayments under the previous administration of Eric Adams, which established a minimum-pay rule for app-based delivery workers in 2023. This rule requires delivery companies, including DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber, to meet a minimum pay rate for covered work, initially set at $17.96 per hour, increasing to $19.96 per hour by 2025.
Samuel Levine from the DCWP noted that the settlement reflects the Mamdani administration's enhanced enforcement capabilities, which included increasing staff and resources since he took office in January. Levine stated, "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."
Other U.S. cities are also addressing delivery driver underpayments. Seattle, Washington, has implemented a minimum-payment system, set to begin using data from delivery platforms in 2024 to enforce compliance. In August, Uber Eats agreed to pay nearly $4.4 million to settle allegations of violating Seattle’s minimum-pay rules, which affected 14,000 workers. Allegations included failure to provide minimum payments for canceled orders and instances where the pick-up or drop-off location was outside city limits.