WILLIAMSBURG — A new law in New York City to pay delivery workers nearly $18 per hour was supposed to go into effect last month, but app companies have sued to prevent the wage hike.
UberEats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and a newer company, New York-based Relay, each filed requests for injunctions several days before the new minimum wage increase was to launch on July 12.
The measure would force companies to pay workers $17.96 per hour or an equivalent rate per delivery. According to the city, the workers currently make about $11 per hour, where the minimum wage for other workers is around $15.
In his 1991 encyclical, “Centesimus Annus,” Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice.”
He further wrote, “In determining fair pay, both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account.”
In this minimum wage case, the determination will be made by a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan, who heard arguments in the case on Aug. 3. A decision could come by month’s end.
Delivery worker William Medina, 38, said he and his fellow deliverers expected the companies would sue to stop the wage.
“I feel a little bit frustrated,” Medina said. “But the companies, they don’t provide health insurance, no medical, nothing. They don’t care about us.”
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