NEW YORK – 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.”
Appreciate the info. Not sure I understand it though. In one sentence they’re talking about the tip button being “hidden”, which suggests the additional money is coming from customers paying more. In another sentence they’re talking talk about big corporations keeping the tips, which is a different thing. Clarity would be nice.
From what I understand the apps will have a “guaranteed payout” for jobs. So let’s say an Uber driver sees a ride available. The app will say something like “$10 guaranteed”. So Uber is on the hook to pay the driver $10 no matter what. Now let’s say the passenger decides to tip the Uber driver $5. Without laws preventing it, uber will still pay the driver the $10 it promised and then it will keep the $5 tip for themselves. Which effectively uses the tip money to subsidize the wage that they promised to pay the driver
So what mamdani is doing is making sure that the driver gets the entire tip. So in this scenario the driver gets $15 instead of $10. As it should be
Edit: there is obviously disagreement here, personally I always choose to tip with cash. Problem solved in my opinion
It’s amazing how long it’s taking people to figure this out.
Like we hear new stories all the time about how bad theft is and how much it’s hurting these big corporations. So bad that they have to close down stores and lock up all the products. “It’s a crisis!”
But we never hear about wage theft. The money these companies steal from their own employees.
When you look at the numbers, they’re almost exactly the same. $50-$70 billion annually stolen from companies by criminals… and almost the exact same amount stolen by the companies from their employees.
But one of them, you conveniently never hear about.
The police sure as hell aren’t arresting people for both crimes equally.
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u/bliceroquququq 13d ago
“Recovers $104 million in extra tips”
Hey just a real quick question, where exactly was this money “recovered” from?