New minimum pay rates for NYC app-based food delivery workers are delayed

A day after the lawsuit brought by Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub, a New York City judge on Friday ordered new minimum wage standards for app-based grocery delivery companies to be temporarily suspended.

City officials recently announced plans to significantly increase the salaries of these workers in the coming years to provide them with more financial stability. The law was scheduled to take effect on July 12 and would see an initially increased wage rate of $17.96 per hour.

But grocery delivery services DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber, along with New York-based Relay Delivery, filed suits in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday. The companies claimed the city’s rulemaking process was flawed and the higher costs were being passed on to consumers.

Judge Nicholas Moyne on Friday ordered a temporary postponement of the new standard’s enactment pending a July 31 hearing.

The food suppliers praised the order.

“We are pleased with the judge’s decision today to delay implementation of a rule that, if left in place, would have serious adverse consequences for supply partners, consumers and independent businesses,” Grubhub said in a prepared statement.

Ministry of Consumer and Labor Protection Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga said she was “extremely disappointed” by the delay.

“These apps currently pay workers well below minimum wage, and that wage rate would help lift thousands of working New Yorkers and their families out of poverty,” she said in a statement. “We look forward to a swift decision so that the decent wages workers deserve are not delayed any longer than necessary.”