Food-Delivery Companies Sue New York City Over Minimum Pay Law
Three food-delivery giants are suing New York City to block minimum pay standards for gig workers, arguing that regulators used faulty data to calculate the new compensation rules.
Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub on Thursday each filed a request for a temporary restraining order in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to stop the wage changes from going into effect on July 12. Relay, a smaller, New York-based food delivery platform, did the same.
The new pay standard, which was announced last month, would require gig platforms to pay food delivery workers about $18 per hour and to increase that amount to $20 per hour by 2025. Delivery workers currently make around $11 an hour, according the city’s estimate.
But Uber and the other gig companies say they will be forced to pass on the cost of the higher wages to consumers by raising prices. They argue that the city’s modeling does not correctly calculate the degree to which these higher prices will harm local restaurants. And they say that the new system will work to deliverers’ disadvantage because the company, to control costs, will have to strictly monitor how much time they spend online on the apps but not actually doing deliveries.
Source: The New York Times
