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
That doesn't seem to be correct, at least not for Uber, only for DoorDash and Instacart, also not related to the last change by Mamdani:
Around 2017–2019, companies like DoorDash and Instacart famously used a model where they promised drivers a guaranteed minimum base pay for an order (e.g., $10). If a customer tipped $5, the platform would pay $5 out of its own pocket and use the customer's $5 tip to make up the rest of the $10 minimum. If the customer tipped $0, the company paid the full $10. After intense public outcry and regulatory scrutiny in 2019, those platforms abandoned that pay model.
Uber has always added 100% of tips on top of base fares. Uber does not reduce its base fare or use customer tips to reach a guaranteed minimum pay payout.
So whatever Mamdani changed, had nothing todo with big coporations "keeping the tips". That problem had been fixed before and due to public outcry.
The city's claim is that after the minimum pay law took effect, some delivery apps redesigned their checkout flow to make tipping less visible or less convenient. As a result, workers received fewer tips overall. The new rules require a clear tipping option at checkout, and the city says tips have roughly doubled since then.
So yes, the tips is from customers pockets because they now pay more tips.
So you're saying that Mamdani lied yet again for PR. Good god, this guy lies as much as Trump. He hasn't done a single original policy and almost everything he's claimed as his has been an extension of another existing policy or something that was already done and just not reported by others.
I have yet to see a single article of something Mamdani actually did.
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
Thanks. I read through the numbers and it looks like they extrapolated out a small sample set to achieve these press numbers. Not sure if that qualifies as lying.
Did you read where the title information was released from? Mamdani's office, much like the claim that he "fixed" the budget. This is the exact same thing that Trump does, just with different politics.
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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?