New York City’s delivery platform workers’ rights have reached a milestone victory. Mayor Mamdani of New York City and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) jointly held a press conference on Tuesday, September 22nd, announcing that the delivery giant DoorDash has agreed to pay at least $131.5 million to settle an investigation by the city into underpayment and late payment of over 260,000 delivery workers. This case not only marks the largest amount in labor enforcement in the history of New York City but also the largest settlement case against a delivery platform in all American cities.
According to the settlement agreement, the total fund of $131.5 million will be allocated as follows:
– Delivery worker compensation fund: Over $115.4 million will be directly distributed to affected delivery workers.
– Civil fines and other related purposes: DoorDash will pay approximately $11.3 million in civil fines, $4.3 million for a third-party compliance monitoring program driven by delivery workers, and around $468,000 in administrative fees.
– Compensation amounts: Approximately 264,000 delivery workers will receive compensation. The vast majority of them will receive over $1,000 in compensation, with over 4,000 people eligible for compensation exceeding $5,000.
Due to the agreement requiring DoorDash to further calculate underpaid wages from June 29th to November 29th, 2026, the total compensation is expected to increase.
DCWP Commissioner Sam Levine pointed out that the investigation began as multiple delivery workers complained about being owed wages by DoorDash. Upon the city’s investigation, it was found that DoorDash was seriously violating New York City’s minimum wage standards.
Approximately 209,000 delivery workers experienced delayed payment (ranging from days to weeks) or did not receive payment at all, totaling about $12.3 million.
DoorDash excluded canceled trips, DashLink deliveries, and “On-call time” when delivery workers were ready to accept orders upon logging into the app from the calculation of minimum wages, thereby reducing the hourly wages due to delivery workers.
Facing the investigation results, DoorDash publicly apologized on Tuesday, stating, “We messed up,” and attributed some payment errors to system technical bugs and complex algorithms.
In addition to the hefty compensation, DoorDash was also required to immediately modify its app and payment systems in the five boroughs of New York City.
Within 30 days, DoorDash must ensure that all time spent by delivery workers logged into the system waiting or on assignments is recorded and compensated, increase transparency in wage details, and prevent payment failures.
The $4.3 million in the settlement will fund the “Workers’ Justice Program” and Princeton University to develop specialized data tools that enable delivery workers to directly collect and share delivery data with the city for long-term platform oversight. DoorDash must submit detailed compliance data to DCWP for three consecutive years and undergo annual certification.
DCWP stated that affected delivery workers do not need to apply on their own, as the city has identified eligible individuals from DoorDash’s internal records. Personal compensation notifications are expected to be sent out gradually starting in late October.