Last week, New York City finalized a rule setting a minimum pay standard of $17.96 per hour for delivery workers for gig companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Postmates. The new rule resulted from an extended campaign by the Deliveristas, a fierce organization of delivery workers who brave traffic, snow, floods, heat, smoke, and COVID to bring New Yorkers our dinner.
$17.96 per hour is more than reasonable when you consider that delivery workers cover all of their own expenses (e-bikes, cars, gas, vehicle-maintenance, and so on); they also work extensive uncompensated time while waiting for orders. The new rule basically helps these workers get something close to minimum wage. According to the city’s analysis, current estimated pay rate from companies is a mere $7.09 per hour. This inadequate pay happens in large part because delivery-app companies treat workers as independent contractors, depriving them of the basic employee protections like paid sick days, workers’ compensation, and unemployment insurance. (New York’s highest court, it should be noted, hasn’t fully bought the argument that delivery workers aren’t employees under New York law. I don’t buy it either.)
Advertisement
Instead of feeling lucky that for so long they’ve gotten to avoid the laws that every other business has to follow, these companies have expressed great consternation about New York City’s new rule on pay. DoorDash, for example, lambasted the city’s action as “deeply misguided” and likely to...
The Newsboys’ federal lawsuit is pushing back strongly against past allegations that a woman was raped by a Newsboys lighting technician and it asserts that the report was false and contradicted b...