Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine released a new report showing the City's crackdown on deceptive tipping practices by app-based delivery platforms has secured an estimated $104 million in additional tips for delivery workers since January.
Since the City began enforcing new tipping protections on January 26, 2026, tips have doubled, and the city's approximately 70,000 app-based delivery workers are on pace to earn an additional $184 million annually in tips, or about $2,287 more each year for the average worker.
"For years, delivery apps buried the tip button to pad their own bottom line, and delivery workers paid the price," said Mayor Mamdani. "We changed the law, enforced it, and it's working: $104 million has gone back into the pockets of the workers who keep this city fed, rain or shine. New York will not allow billion-dollar tech companies to boost their profits by taking money from working people."
"When a customer leaves a tip, that money belongs to the delivery worker, not to the app," said Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. "It belongs to the worker who carried our food up four flights of stairs or biked through the rain to make sure dinner arrived at your door. Since January, delivery workers across New York City have earned $104 million more because we made these companies play by the rules. We're not done. We'll keep enforcing this law and keep going after any platform that tries to shortchange its workers."
"New York is a city that tips-and I don't just mean OG Anunoby's game winner at the Garden. The data is clear: allowing consumers the clear ability to tip hardworking deliveristas benefits our workers and strengthens our economy," said DCWP Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine. "I said it when DCWP blew the whistle on delivery apps' design tricks in January, and I'll say it again: under Mayor Mamdani, the biggest corporations in the world will no longer be able to rake in record profits on the backs of New Yorkers."
The report highlights the impact of the Mamdani administration's efforts to enforce New York City's Delivery Worker Laws and curb industry practices that reduced delivery workers' earnings by an estimated $550 million in tips. It also demonstrates that stronger worker protections can increase earnings while maintaining consumer demand for food delivery.
"Delivery workers fought for years to win fair pay, only to watch app companies find new ways to take money out of workers' pockets," said Ligia Guallpa, Executive Director of Worker's Justice Project and Co-Founder of its Los Deliveristas Unidos organizing campaign. "Today's announcement is proof that organized workers can overcome even the most powerful corporations when government chooses to stand with working people. We are grateful to Mayor Mamdani, Commissioner Levine, and the entire DCWP team for showing that workers' rights don't end when legislation is passed - they become real only through strong enforcement. This victory is about far more than tips. It's about demonstrating that New York will not allow corporations to profit by undermining the rights of the people who keep this city running."
"When we passed the minimum pay guarantee for deliveristas in 2023, the apps responded by hiding the tip option from their customers," said Majority Leader Shaun Abreu. "That cost deliveristas over half a billion dollars in earnings. We refused to let that stand, and I was proud to sponsor the law to restore tipping at checkout. The apps sued us over it, the judges said we were right, and the deliveristas won big. $104 million in earnings going back into their pockets since the law went into effect in January is money that helps them put food on their own tables. None of this is possible without DCWP's continued enforcement, and we will continue to fight alongside them and the deliveristas until they get every cent they've earned."
"When mega corporations implemented design tricks to cheat workers out of an average of $5,800 a year, the Council took action and the data shows the local laws that became effective earlier this year are working," said Councilmember Harvey Epstein, Chair of the Consumer and Worker Protection Committee. "These tipping fairness laws don't just protect workers-they strengthen our local economy by putting money back in New Yorkers' pockets, so they can spend it in our communities. When workers are prospering our city thrives."
"A city is judged by how it treats the people who do its hardest work," said Assemblyman Charles D. Fall. "Delivery workers have shown up for New Yorkers through every season, every storm, and every hour of the day, asking for little more than the chance to earn an honest living. Putting more than $104 million back into their pockets is a reminder that hard work deserves dignity, sacrifice deserves respect, and the people who keep this city moving should never be left behind."
Protecting Delivery Workers' Tips
When New York City's historic minimum pay standard for 70,000 app-based delivery workers took effect in December 2023, major tech platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash responded by hiding tipping menus. DCWP estimates those changes cost workers an estimated $550 million in tips. Since January 26, 2026, delivery apps operating in New York City have been required to provide customers with a clear tipping option at checkout, including a selectable 10% tip, a custom tip amount, or the option to leave no tip.
Report Highlights
Tips per Delivery at Restaurant Delivery Apps Before and After DCWP Tipping Law:
- During the four weeks before the law took effect, deliver workers earned an average of $1.18 per delivery. During the four weeks after implementation, average tips increased to $2.29 per delivery, an increase of $1.11 per trip.
- The new tipping requirements had no measurable impact on demand for food delivery. Customers continued placing record-high numbers of orders on apps, with 3.3 million orders placed each week. That is 700,000 more weekly orders than in December 2023, when the City first began enforcing the minimum pay standard.
- Since December 2023, delivery workers' total hourly earnings -- including pay and tips -- have increased from $10.48 per hour to $27.32 per hour, an increase of $16.84 per hour, or 161%.
- To date, New York City's minimum pay standard has resulted in more than $2 billion in additional earnings for delivery workers.
Delivery workers can learn more about their rights under Delivery Worker Laws at nyc.gov/deliveryapps. Delivery workers who believe a restaurant or grocery delivery app has failed to pay the required minimum rate of $22.13 per hour, excluding tips, for time spent preparing or making deliveries are encouraged to file a complaint at nyc.gov/workers.
