NYC raised delivery pay. It locked out over 28k workers.
Since 2020, more than a dozen laws turned the city’s delivery market into a managed roster. Active couriers earn 86% more per hour. Tens of thousands sit on waitlists. Consumers pay $416 more a year. Before any other city copies this model, the full tradeoff has to be on the table.
See the TradeoffPay Rose. Access Closed.
The wage floor worked as designed. Hourly pay nearly doubled for active couriers. But platforms absorbed the cost by doing more with less, concentrating work among fewer workers and shutting access to thousands more.
Total hourly earnings climbed from $13.40 to $24.03. Base pay surged from $7.08 to $21.04. Workers active on the platforms saw real, durable gains.
Active workers fell from 87,000 to 59,000. Platforms capped log-ins, tightened scheduling, and closed access to thousands of workers who relied on flexible entry. Part-time and supplemental income workers absorbed almost all of that loss.
Productivity climbed +58% per worker per hour. Idle time collapsed by 66%. Total deliveries kept growing, up +30% across the period. The market did not shrink. It restructured around a smaller, busier core.
SourceKaitlyn Harger, Ph.D., Chamber of Progress analysis of NYC DCWP quarterly delivery data, Q1 2022 to Q2 2025.
This is what
28,000
looks like.
Each dot is a worker on Uber Eats’ NYC waitlist alone, July 2024.
The total locked out across all platforms is unknown but almost certainly larger.
Two Tiers,
And a Third Bill.
The wage floor created a clear divide: workers who got in earn substantially more, workers who didn’t got pushed out, and consumers picked up part of the cost.
Part-time, supplemental, flexible. Now closed off.
Platforms responded to higher labor costs by restricting access. Workers who relied on intermittent log-ins, supplemental income, or flexible hours have effectively been pushed out of the market. The flexibility that defined platform work is what the new system constrains.
Real Gains.
Workers who secured a spot earn substantially more. Predictable platform-paid pay replaced dependence on tips. For high-volume couriers, the policy is a clear win.
Higher Fees.
Average fees rose from $4.05 to $6.98 per delivery. Grocery delivery fees jumped sharply when rules expanded in January 2026.
Not a Gap.
A Stack.
Since 2020, New York City has enacted 17 laws and agency rules covering pay, pricing, transparency, safety, and data reporting. Before any city adds another layer, here’s what’s already on the books.
Restaurant Platform Rules
- 2020Per-order fee cap (15%) on platforms
- 2020Total fee cap (20%); telephone disclosure required
- 2020Listing without restaurant consent prohibited
- 2021Fee caps made permanent; app licensing required
Worker Transparency
- 2021Tip disclosure before workers accept deliveries
- 2021Distance and pay shown before acceptance
- 2021DCWP directed to set minimum pay standard
- 2021Insulated bags required at no cost; civil penalties
Wage Floor & Expansion
- 2023Minimum pay standard phased in starting July
- 2025Full rate reaches $21.44/hr (excluding tips)
- 2026Deactivation protections proposed
- 2026Pay standard extended to grocery delivery
From Pickup Game
to Starting Lineup
The full paper examines every dimension of how New York City’s wage floor laws reshaped the delivery market, what Seattle’s parallel experiment reveals, and what policymakers in other cities should weigh before borrowing the model.
