NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Is Cracking Down On Food Delivery Apps

Just a couple of weeks after taking office following his underdog victory in last year's mayoral election, New York City mayor and noted fan of Kabab King Zohran Mamdani is wasting no time. He's unveiled a universal childcare policy alongside New York governor Kathy Hochul, smoothed out that annoying bump on the Manhattan Bridge bike lane, and now he's taking aim at food delivery apps for alleged anti-labor practices.

Mamdani's administration has sued Motoclick, a third-party platform that integrates delivery apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub. The suit claims that Motoclick ran afoul of the city's Minimum Pay Rate through tactics like deducting refunded orders from their delivery drivers' paychecks and charging their workers $10 per cancelled order. Mamdani has also warned 60 other delivery apps that they will be sued in turn if they don't comply with Delivery Worker Laws, which go into effect on January 26, 2025. "No longer will we tolerate corporate mistreatment of workers across these five boroughs," declared Mamdani.

Once upon a time, most people's only options for delivery were pizza (which tastes better when uncut) or Chinese food — maybe Indian food, if you lived in a particularly cosmopolitan area. But while the proliferation of apps like Uber Eats and Postmates over the past 15 years has given consumers unprecedented access to all sorts of food brought right to their door, the delivery drivers don't see nearly as much of a benefit. Much like how Uber and Lyft got a foothold through avoiding taxi union regulations, the couriers for delivery apps are classified as independent contractors, meaning (until very recently in California) that they have no union protections.

Horror stories abound regarding the labor conditions for delivery app drivers. Working for less than minimum wage, drivers are expected to work nearly nonstop, deal with harassment from customers and shoulder the burden of any injuries they might accrue on the job. And if that weren't enough, these drivers (often members of vulnerable population groups, like immigrants) frequently end up bilked out of their tips, too: Reports indicate that New York City delivery drivers lost $550 million in tips to their apps. At this point, getting Americans to stop ordering cold, soggy fries on Uber Eats is a losing battle — the least we can do is offer protection to the drivers.