A “pay period” is the seven-day time period an app sets and must use to calculate the money owed to workers. The pay period can start on any day of the week and at any hour of the day, but an app must establish a fixed, single pay period for all its workers.

An app must pay workers at least once a week. An app must pay all money owed for a pay period within seven calendar days after the pay period ends.

A worker who is paid late may be entitled to $200 per late payment and/or three times the amount of any minimum payment owed.

Yes. Restaurant apps and grocery apps must provide customers with an opportunity before or at the time they place an order using the app to tip a worker, with tip options including at least ten percent of the purchase price and an option to manually enter a tip percentage or amount. (Effective January 26, 2026)

Yes. Apps must provide worker a written pay statement that itemizes gross and net compensation and all permissible deductions for that pay period, no later than seven days after the end of the pay period. (Effective January 26, 2026)

The minimum pay rate, not including tips, is $21.44 per hour for pay periods that begin on or after April 1, 2025.

DCWP announces annual adjustments to the minimum pay rate on or before February 1 of each year.

Restaurant apps and grocery apps must pay their workers the minimum pay rate.

Note: Other types of apps are not currently required to pay the minimum pay rate, but DCWP is required to set a minimum pay rate for all delivery apps in early 2027 pursuant to Section 20-1522 of the New York City Administrative Code.

An app may use one of two methods to calculate pay:

1) Standard Method OR
2) Alternative Method

1. Standard Method

Under the Standard Method, an app must meet two requirements.

1. The app’s payment to each worker must be at least the minimum pay rate multiplied by the worker’s trip time during the pay period.
   
   For example, if a worker spends 10 hours on trips for an app in a pay period, and 5 hours on-call, the app can’t pay that worker less than $214.40 for the period (10 hours times $21.44).


2. The app’s total payments to all its workers together must meet or exceed the minimum pay rate multiplied by the sum of all its workers’ total trip time and on-call time during the pay period. (Effective July 1, 2026, for grocery apps)
   
   For example, if the app’s workers together spend 70,000 hours on trips and 30,000 on-call for the app in a pay period, the app’s total payments to these workers together can’t be less than $2,144,000 for the period (100,000 hours times $21.44).
   

The app is not required to pay each worker individually for on-call time under the Standard Method.

2. Alternative Method

Under the Alternative Method, workers have a right to higher pay for their trip time but no right to compensation for their on-call time. An app using the Alternative Method must meet the following requirement:

1. The app’s payment to each worker must be at least the minimum pay rate divided by 60%, then multiplied by the worker’s trip time during the pay period.
   
   For example, if a worker spends 10 hours on trips for an app in a pay period, the app can’t pay that worker less than $357.34 for the period.
   

An app can choose which method applies to each pay period, as long as the app uses the same method for all workers.

An app may only choose the Alternative Method for a pay period if the app has a utilization rate above 53%, with limited exceptions. (Effective November 1, 2026 for grocery apps)

Example: Standard Method

Albert and Brenda work for Uber Eats. In Week 1, which is in April 2025, 5,000 delivery workers, in aggregate, engage in 60,000 hours of trip time and 40,000 hours of on-call time for Uber Eats. These totals include Albert and Brenda who each had 30 hours of trip time and 20 hours of on-call time. Uber Eats pays Albert $1,000. It pays Brenda $650. It pays all workers together $2,144,000. Has Uber Eats complied with the requirements of the Standard Method?

Yes.

The individual requirement (i.) is met because Albert and Brenda each made more than $643.20 ($21.44 multiplied by 30 hours trip time).

The aggregate requirement (ii.) is met because Uber Eats paid $2,144,000 ($21.44 multiplied by 100,000 hours of total trip time and on-call time.)

Example: Alternative Method

Albert and Brenda work for Uber Eats. In Week 2, which is in April 2025, 5,000 delivery workers, in aggregate, engage in 60,000 hours of trip time and 40,000 hours of on-call time for Uber Eats. These totals include Albert, who had 30 hours of trip time and 20 hours of on-call time, and Brenda, who had 20 hours of trip time and 30 hours of on-call time. Uber Eats pays Albert $1,072.00. It pays Brenda $714.67. It pays all workers together $2,144,000. Has Uber Eats complied with the requirements of the Alternative Method?

Yes.

Albert and Brenda were paid for their trip time per the Alternative Method’s requirement:

Albert: $21.44 (minimum pay rate) divided by 60% and multiplied by 30 hours trip time equals $1,072.00.

Brenda: $21.44 (minimum pay rate) divided by 60% and multiplied by 20 hours trip time equals $714.67.

“Trip time” begins the moment a worker accepts an offer from an app to provide delivery services, including selecting, preparing, assembling, waiting for, picking up, and travel, with a pickup or drop-off location in New York City (or receives an assignment to make a trip) and ends the moment the worker cancels or completes the trip. Trips can include more than one delivery.

“On-call time” is when workers are connected to an app’s electronic system in a status where they can receive or accept trip offers with a pickup or drop-off location in New York City. On-call time does not include trip time.

An app’s utilization rate is calculated per pay period. The utilization rate is all workers' trip time for an app divided by the combined total of all workers’ trip time and on-call time for the app.

No. An app may comply with the Laws using any basis of pay it chooses, including:

• Hourly rate
• Per-trip rate or per-order rate
• Bonus or other lump-sum payment
• Any other basis

No, an app is not required to inform workers of the method it is using in advance. However, an app must inform workers of the method it used to calculate their pay on a written pay statement no later than seven days after the end of the pay period.

Except for recordkeeping requirements and cases of retaliation, the Laws do not have requirements about:

• The shifts that apps make available
• The shifts that workers schedule
• The hours that apps make available
• The hours that workers work
• The number of trips apps offer
• Workers’ decisions about which trips to accept
• The number of apps workers work for (i.e., multi-apping)
• Onboarding and deactivation
• "Order bundling”
• Worker ratings

Apps may have requirements in these areas; however, it is not required by law.

An app can’t use tips to meet its obligations under the minimum pay rate. If a customer uses the app to pay a tip, the trip offer must show the tip amount. See IV. PAY AND TIP DISCLOSURES for more information.

If an app does not comply with its minimum pay obligations, workers may be entitled to back pay and an additional three times the amount of any minimum payment owed.

The minimum pay protections apply to trips that:

• Include a pickup location in NYC; OR
• Include a drop-off location in NYC.

Apps are not required to pay the minimum pay rate for trip time if both the pickup and drop-off locations are outside NYC.

An app must record and compensate on-call time when the worker is connected to the app in a status where the worker is available to receive or accept trip offers or assignments with a pickup or drop-off location in New York City, even if the worker is not physically located within NYC.

All covered apps must provide certain pay and tip disclosures. Other requirements only apply to restaurant apps.

For every trip, before a worker accepts an offer, the app must tell workers all of the following:

• Pickup and drop-off location
• Estimated time and routed distance for the trip, as well as the route used to make the estimate. The estimate must account for the time it would take to safely complete the trip.
• The direct distance between the first pickup location and final drop-off location (restaurant apps only)
• The worker’s maximum distance in effect, if applicable (restaurant apps only)
• Amount of any tip selected by a customer
• Amount of pay or the hourly pay rate the worker will receive for the trip, without counting tips

See V. DELIVERY DISTANCE AND ROUTE LIMITS for more information about the estimated time and distance for each trip.

Yes. If an app offers to add another delivery to a trip a worker has already accepted, the app must tell the worker about the additional delivery.

Example:

Rita receives and accepts an offer to deliver one order through DoorDash. The offer requires her to pick up one meal from Burgerville Restaurant and deliver it to a customer at 123 Sesame Street. While traveling from Burgerville Restaurant with the first delivery order, Rita receives an offer to add a second delivery order to her trip. Pickup is at Hotdogville Restaurant, and the drop-off location is 125 Sesame Street. If Rita accepts the additional offer, what details must she get?

The app must give Rita all of the following details about the second delivery offer:

• Pickup address for Hotdogville Restaurant
• Estimated distance the second delivery would add to the accepted trip
• Estimated time the second delivery would add to the accepted trip
• Amount of tip selected by the customer for the second delivery
• Additional pay the worker would receive for accepting and completing the second delivery
• The direct distance between the first pickup location and final drop-off location, if changed
• The worker’s maximum distance in effect

Yes. An app must pay at least the amount of pay and the tip shown in the trip offer.

Note: If the trip offer showed an hourly pay rate, the app must pay the worker at least the hourly pay rate shown in the trip offer for the time the worker spends on the trip.

Exception: If the customer changes the tip amount, the app is only required to pay the worker the tip the customer actually paid.

Yes. All apps must tell workers in the trip offer the amount of tip chosen by a customer.

Example:

Relay, a third-party courier service, receives an order from Uber Eats, a third-party food delivery service, to make a delivery from Burgerville, a restaurant. Whose responsibility is it to disclose the amount of customer tip to the delivery worker?

Because Relay is arranging the delivery directly with the worker, it is Relay’s responsibility to disclose any customer tip amount to the worker.

Restaurant apps must tell a worker if:

• The customer paid an additional tip.
• The customer decided to remove the tip and the reason the customer gave.

Note: Courier services are not required to provide this information.

Restaurant apps must track total pay and total tips earned each day and tell workers the totals the next day.

Exceptions:

• An app is not required to provide this disclosure if a worker has no earnings.
• Courier services are not required to provide daily pay and tip summaries.

The pay disclosure and tip disclosure protections apply to offers for trips that:

• Begin in New York City;
• End in New York City; AND/OR
• Involve picking up goods in New York City.

A trip begins in New York City if an app offers a trip to a worker who is physically located in New York City at the time of the offer, even if the restaurant and the drop-off location are outside of New York City.

Note: An app may place geographic limits on the trip offers a worker sees.

Apps must offer at least one no-fee option for workers to get paid.

Example:

Grubhub gives workers the option of being paid by direct deposit to a bank account with no fees or by paper check with a fee of $1 per payment. Is this legal?

Yes. Grubhub offers at least one form of payment that does not have fees.

Yes. An app must pay a worker $200 per violation, with limited exceptions, for violations of the pay disclosure and tip disclosure protections.

Only restaurant apps are required to allow workers to set limits on their trips.

Workers for restaurant delivery apps can:

• Refuse any trips that require travel over a bridge or through a tunnel.
• Refuse any trips that require travel over specific bridges or through specific tunnels. OR
• Limit the direct distance between the first pickup-location and the final drop-off location of a trip.

The limits a worker sets can be temporary or long-term. A restaurant app can’t offer a trip outside of a worker’s limits.

Restaurant apps must allow workers to change their limits at any time. Workers can change limits in real time to respond to conditions and hazards as they arise.

Example:

It is snowing, and Theresa does not want to make deliveries over the Brooklyn Bridge due to weather conditions. Can Theresa set this limit in the restaurant app?

Yes. Theresa can set this limit in the restaurant app, declining to receive trip offers that involve travel across the bridge for just the one night. The new limit is automatic and does not need to be approved.

A trip includes the time, distance, and route to get to the restaurant, pick up the order, and deliver the order. A single trip may include more than one pickup location and/or more than one drop-off location.

Examples:

Rita receives and accepts an offer to deliver two orders through Fantuan that have been bundled. The offer requires her to pick up two meals from Burgerville Restaurant and deliver one to a customer at 123 Sesame Street and the other to a customer at 500 Home Street. Both the pickup and drop-off locations are in New York City. How many trips is this?

The entire process—traveling to Burgerville Restaurant, traveling from the restaurant to 123 Sesame Street, traveling from Sesame Street to 500 Home Street—is one trip.

Rita receives and accepts an offer to deliver one order through Fantuan. The offer requires her to pick up one meal from Burgerville Restaurant and deliver it to a customer at 123 Sesame Street. While traveling from Burgerville Restaurant with the first delivery order, Rita receives an offer to add a second delivery order to her trip. Pickup is at Hotdogville Restaurant, and the drop-off location is 125 Sesame Street. If Rita accepts the additional offer, how many trips is this?

The entire process—traveling to Burgerville Restaurant, traveling from Burgerville Restaurant to Hotdogville Restaurant, traveling from Hotdogville Restaurant to 123 Sesame Street, traveling from 123 Sesame Street to 125 Sesame Street—is one trip.

The delivery distance and route protections apply to offers from restaurant apps for trips that:

• Begin in New York City;
• End in New York City; AND/OR
• Involve picking up goods from a business in New York City.

A trip begins in New York City if a restaurant app offers a trip to a worker who is physically located in New York City at the time of the offer, even if the restaurant and the drop-off location are outside of New York City.

It does not matter that a restaurant app offers pickup from other businesses. The delivery distance and route protections apply to all trip offers.

The estimated time and distance for a trip are the total time and total distance to complete the trip. This calculation must include:

• Travel from the location where the worker accepts the offer to the pickup location
• Time to pick up the order, including any time to prepare the order at the pickup location
  (for example, placing the order, paying for the order, assembling the order)
• Any waiting time (for example, at the pickup location or the customer’s location)
• Travel from the pickup location to the customer’s delivery address
• Time to deliver the order
• Travel between pickup locations and drop-off locations (if more than one delivery order)

Note: The trip offer may show the expected or required time by which a worker will have safely completed all work on the trip instead of the estimated total time for the trip.

No. The Laws do not give workers the right to select zones of work or geographic areas.

However, the maximum distance right allows a worker to chose to be near the first pick-up location at the end of a trip by limiting how far away they are willing to travel.

Restaurant apps must give workers the ability to specify the maximum distance between the first pickup location to a final drop-off location at the end of the trip. The law gives a worker the right to end the trip near the starting point. The address of the first pick-up is at the center of a circle, and the final drop-off point on the trip must be inside that circle. There is no limit on the number of pick-up points and drop-off points on a trip, nor any limit on the total routed distance to travel between all of those points, so long as the final drop-off point on the trip is within the worker’s selected maximum distance. This gives workers control over how far away they will end up from a particular geographic point after concluding a bundled trip.

Example:

Marie sets a 2-mile maximum distance in the HungryPanda app. HungryPanda sends her an offer to pick up two orders at Burgerville. She delivers the first order to Location B, 1 mile from Burgerville; and the second order to Location C, 1.1 miles away from Location B, but 1.5 miles away from Burgerville. The trip is within Marie’s set maximum distance even though Marie traveled 2.1 miles from Burgerville to her final drop-off location. This is because the direct distance between the first pickup at Burgerville and the final drop-off location from Burgerville is 1.5 miles.

Restaurant apps may not:

• Offer a worker trips a final drop-off location outside of the worker's maximum distance.
• Require workers to set a maximum distance at more than one mile.
• Require workers to set their maximum distance in increments of greater than one mile.

Note: If a restaurant app sets its lowest maximum distance option more than one mile, DCWP will take enforcement action.

To measure the direct distance of a trip, the start point is the first restaurant where the worker picks up an order(s), and the end point is the last delivery address. The distance from the worker’s location when they accept an offer to the restaurant is not included in the trip distance calculation.

Example:

Marie sets a 2-mile maximum distance in the DoorDash app. DoorDash sends her an offer to pick up an order from Burgerville Restaurant and deliver it to 123 Sesame Street, a 1.8 mile direct distance from Burgerville to Sesame Street. Marie is in her car 3 miles from Burgerville when she receives the offer. Is the trip offer legal?

Yes. Regardless of how far Marie will need to drive to pick up and deliver the order, the direct distance between the order’s pickup and final drop-off location is 1.8 miles, which is within the 2-mile maximum distance Marie set in the app.

No. Workers have a right to reject trip offers that are outside the limits they set. It’s illegal for apps to retaliate against workers who exercise their rights. See VIII. RETALIATION.

Note: A restaurant app can lower a worker’s internal rating for rejecting a trip offer that does not violate the limits the worker set.

No. This would be unlawful retaliation.

A restaurant app can’t discriminate against workers who set a shorter maximum distance when deciding who should receive a trip offer within their maximum distance. However, a worker who sets a shorter maximum distance may be eligible for fewer trip offers than a worker who sets a longer maximum distance.

Yes. A restaurant app must pay a worker $200 per violation for violations of the delivery distance and route protections.

All apps are required to provide workers with a free food delivery bag, if the worker delivers food.

After workers complete six food deliveries for an app, they can request a free insulated food delivery bag that the app must provide. Workers typically can request the bag by contacting an app through its support chat.

Workers may ask the app to send the bag to a specified delivery address, or workers may arrange to pick up the bag from the app.

Yes. If the bag is stolen, lost, or damaged, an app must provide a free replacement bag. However, an app can limit the free replacement to one bag every six months.

For workers who operate a bicycle or e-bike, the bag must not prevent them from keeping at least one hand on the handlebars.

Yes. An app must pay a worker $200 for a violation.

All workers who work for delivery services are covered under the bathroom access law.

Workers must be allowed to use the bathroom at most pickup locations in New York City. Exceptions apply.

Yes. Workers who are denied bathroom access may be entitled to $200 per instance.

No. Retaliation is illegal. Apps can’t punish, penalize, retaliate, or take any action against workers that might stop or deter them from exercising or attempting to exercise rights under the Laws. Workers should immediately contact DCWP about retaliation. Use DCWP Online Services at nyc.gov/workers to file a complaint.

Retaliation is any act that penalizes a worker for, or is reasonably likely to deter a worker from, exercising rights under the Laws.

Retaliation can include threats, intimidation, harassment, actions related to perceived immigration status or work authorization, discipline, discrimination, reduction in hours or pay, and other negative consequences imposed on a worker.

Retaliation also includes denial of work opportunities because workers exercised or attempted to exercise their rights under the Laws. Denial of work opportunities includes but is not limited to:

• Deactivating a worker, permanently or temporarily
• Downgrading a worker’s public or internal rating
• Any act that results in a worker not being offered a trip or shift

A worker does not have to explicitly refer to a specific section of the Laws in order to be protected from retaliation. Retaliation exists when the protected activity was a motivating factor for the retaliatory act, even if other factors also motivated the act. Workers are protected from retaliation even if they mistakenly, but in good faith, assert their rights under the Laws.

Deactivation is when an app stops offering shifts or trips to workers, permanently or temporarily, or otherwise prevents workers from continuing to make deliveries through the app. This may be retaliatory if it penalizes workers for exercising or attempting to exercise their rights under the Laws.

Workers who make deliveries for an app often receive a rating from customers or from the app that takes into account specific performance metrics. The rating can be visible to the worker only, to the public, or some combination. Reducing or downgrading a worker’s ratings is retaliatory if it penalizes the worker for exercising or attempting to exercise rights under the Laws or is reasonably likely to deter a worker from exercising rights.

Examples:

Elizabeth works for HungryPanda. HungryPanda uses a rating system and has a policy of automatically deactivating workers whose rating falls below 80. One day, Elizabeth sets her maximum distance in HungrPanda’s app at 2 miles. After setting her 2-mile maximum distance, she receives an offer to pick up an order from a restaurant and deliver it to a drop-off address with a direct distance of 3 miles from the restaurant. She rejects the offer because she does not want to travel that far. The rejection results in Elizabeth’s rating dropping below 80, and HungryPanda automatically deactivates Elizabeth per its policy. Is this retaliation?

Yes. The app dropped Elizabeth’s rating after she set a maximum distance and rejected an offer outside of her limit which she had a right to do.

Juanita works for Grubhub. One week in April 2025, the app pays her $250 for a week in which she worked 15 hours total (10 trip time hours, 5 on-call hours). Juanita believes that she should have been paid $321.60 (minimum pay rate of $21.44 multiplied by 15 total hours) for the week and submits a complaint to her app through its support chat. A representative provides a breakdown of Juanita’s pay for the week which shows that she was properly paid under the Standard Method: $21.44 per hour for 10 hours of trip time ($214.40) plus an additional supplement of $35.60. Can the app take any action against Juanita?

No. Even though Juanita was mistaken about her rights under the Laws, the app can’t take any adverse action against her—for example, deactivation—for making the complaint through its support chat.

No. An app must pay a worker for all deliveries the worker completed before the worker was deactivated. Workers who are not paid, or paid late, may be entitled to $200 per late payment and/or back pay and three times the amount of any minimum payment owed.

If the worker’s app has an appeal process, the worker may choose to use it. Workers can also file complaints with DCWP in one of the following ways:

• Call 311 and say “delivery worker.”
• Use DCWP Online Services at nyc.gov/workers.

Yes. If an app retaliates against a worker, it must pay the worker between $500 to $2,500 plus the worker’s lost earnings.

Apps must keep and maintain records documenting their compliance with the Laws’ requirements. See Subchapter H of Chapter 7 of Title 6 of the Rules of the City of New York.

Yes. Workers can file complaints with DCWP if they believe their rights under the Laws have been violated. The complaint form is available at nyc.gov/workers. Workers can also call 311 (212-NEW-YORK outside NYC) and ask to be transferred to a DCWP representative to assist them in filing a complaint over the phone.

Workers must file their complaint within two years of the date they knew or should have known of the violation(s) they allege.

DCWP investigates complaints to identify any potential violation of the Laws. This involves collecting information from the worker, the app, and any other parties that may have relevant information. If, as a result of an investigation, DCWP believes a violation occurred, DCWP attempts to resolve the case and bring the app into compliance.

If DCWP and the app are unable to reach a resolution, DCWP may pursue a case at the NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH).

Yes. DCWP keeps the identity of complainants and witnesses—including people who provide information to DCWP who are not complainants—confidential unless disclosing their identity is necessary to resolve the investigation or is otherwise required by law. DCWP will obtain permission from a complainant before disclosing their identity.

No. All workers have the same rights and protections under the Laws, regardless of immigration status. DCWP does not collect any information about a complainant’s immigration status.

Yes. DCWP may file a case at OATH against an app that fails to respond to an investigation or to provide information, records, or access to records requested by DCWP in connection with an investigation.

An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) may hear testimony from DCWP, the app, and any witnesses. Under the Laws, the ALJ may order an app to pay restitution and civil penalties.

Following any trial, OATH issues recommended decisions that are reviewed by DCWP’s Commissioner who has the authority to issue a final decision.

Yes. Workers alleging violations of certain provisions of the Laws may initiate civil actions in court or in arbitration to enforce their rights. A worker must file an action within two years of the date the worker knew or should have known of the alleged violation(s).