NYC Announces Largest Food Delivery Worker Settlement Ever Reached in US

Por Amir Khafagy — Truthout

DoorDash reached a $131.5 million settlement agreement for underpaying nearly 260,000 delivery workers.

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This article was originally published by Documented, an independent, non-profit newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities in New York City. The original article can be accessed here.

Immigrant delivery workers have long alleged that DoorDash has shortchanged them out of their hard-earned wages. Now, the city has announced a historic settlement that aims to make them square — and then some.

On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Samuel Levine announced a $131.5 million settlement agreement with DoorDash for underpaying nearly 260,000 delivery workers.

The settlement follows a years-long DCWP investigation that found DoorDash failed to pay thousands of workers for all the time they worked, and failed to pay thousands more workers on time. DCWP will contact the affected workers directly, and said they expect workers will receive compensation equivalent to approximately 200% of the amount they were initially underpaid.

Additionally, DCWP found that DoorDash violated the city’s delivery worker Minimum Pay Rate law, which is currently set at $22.13 per hour for time spent on active delivery, regardless of a worker’s immigration status. And although DoorDash increased hourly pay for its workers in December 2023, the company still found ways to exclude some delivery workers from receiving the minimum hourly wage.

As per the terms of the agreement, over $115 million will go directly into delivery workers’ pockets, and DoorDash will be forced to pay more than $16 million in additional civil penalties. The city estimates that since at least 2022, more than 260,000 workers were underpaid by DoorDash, including workers who were not paid at all or were paid late by days and, in some cases, weeks.

According to the city, this is the largest labor enforcement action in New York City history as well as the largest food delivery worker settlement ever reached in the entire country.

“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,” said Mayor Mamdani in a statement shared with Documented. “No corporation is above the law, and this administration will keep fighting until every worker gets the pay and protections they deserve.”

DoorDash spokesperson Samantha Ramirez acknowledged that the company had failed to pay some workers, but stressed that it was not deliberate, but merely a mistake.

“Simply put, we screwed up,” she told Documented in a statement. “Our mistakes meant some Dashers were underpaid or paid late. While these mistakes weren’t intentional, that doesn’t make them okay. We pride ourselves on operational excellence at DoorDash, and this was not excellent, nor was it acceptable.”

Ramirez said less than 1% of all payments to delivery workers were affected, with around $6.6 million in wages withheld from workers. Another $5.7 million in wages arrived days or, in some cases, weeks late. Overall, Ramirez says, 65% of impacted workers were underpaid by $1 or less.

“We’re making things right by paying every impacted Dasher what they are owed and fixing what caused this so it doesn’t happen again,” said Ramirez.

The settlement goes beyond compensating for past violations. Going forward, as part of the settlement, DoorDash must submit detailed data reports to DCWP every month for three years, which the agency will use to monitor the company’s compliance with the law and the terms of the settlement.

The case was first brought to the city’s attention by The Workers’ Justice Project (WJP) in 2023 after they found that 200 DoorDash workers had had their wages stolen beginning in 2022. Since then, they have continued to put pressure on the city to act. Now the city has finally delivered.

“This historic settlement is a major victory for thousands of Deliveristas across New York City who have been organizing for basic rights and building their own union, Los Deliveristas Unidos,” said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of WJP, in a statement shared with Documented. “For too long, DoorDash treated workers as disposable, stealing their wages and deactivating them, leaving families without the income they rely on. This settlement puts money back in workers’ pockets and holds DoorDash accountable.”

For workers like Rosendo Tacam, who first brought this case to light in 2023, the settlement announcement is a vindication.

“I filed my complaint with DCWP because I knew we had to speak up,” he said in a statement shared with Documented. “Today, seeing delivery workers get justice is proof that when we organize, we can make companies respect us as the essential workers we were and continue to be for our city.”

DoorDash workers who were underpaid between April 22, 2022, and June 28, 2026, will receive emails from settlement administrators about the amount they are owed beginning in late October.

Workers will be given the option to choose between an electronic payment or a check by mail to their last-known address.

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Amir Khafagy is a New York City-based journalist. He has contributed to such publications as Vice, Dame, CityLab, Gothamist, Jacobin, Shelterforce, Curbed, City Limits and In These Times. Follow him on Twitter: @AmirKhafagy91 .

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Fonte: Truthout