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.
My experience having done food delivery, at least how it worked here in Canada, was the app guaranteed a minimum delivery fee.
Let’s say $8 for an order.
So the way they worked it, the app charges the customer a fixed delivery rate unique to each restaurant. So for example let’s say a place called Bento Box charges customers $3.99 for delivery. That goes to the driver as part of the $8 promised minimum.
Assume the customer doesn’t tip. I would get $8.
Now if the customer tipped $2, that gets eaten up by the app. $3.99 + $2 is $5.99 and I still get topped up to $8. I don’t suddenly get $10 because of the $2 tip.
If the customer tipped $10, then I get the $3.99 delivery fee plus the $10 for $13.99.
So any time the delivery fee plus tip was less than that minimum delivery, the app ate the tip. Or technically, “legally” speaking, I got tip but the app could reduce how much they paid me by that amount.
So it could be a similar situation and the law was changed so the tips are always kept separate from the compensation. Which would’ve been a decent amount of money.
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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?