New Yorkers delivering meals from restaurants got yet another raise this week, with the City’s minimum pay rate for these workers climbing above $21 per hour. But those who only deliver goods from grocery stores across the five boroughs still remain left behind, thanks to a technical loophole in the law.
It’s time for the New York City Council to fix this oversight and finally extend the minimum wage to all delivery workers.
New York’s delivery workers — a largely immigrant population — work exceptionally hard to ensure that essentials reach families. That hard work does not change, whether they are delivering hot meals from restaurants, fresh groceries or drug store products.
At Afrikana, we represent Black, Arab and Muslim arrivals who face significant barriers to a new life in New York City. We work to connect these new arrivals to critical services, and do so with an emphasis on dignity, compassion and respect.
We’ve seen these New Yorkers who we represent use delivery apps as an accessible way to earn a living – many times it is the first job they are able to do once arriving in New York. These jobs are vital to our members to help them support their families, but we’ve heard from some of
our members that the minimum pay rate for delivery workers has been confusing for them because it doesn’t apply across all of the different delivery platforms.
We know that many of our members, like most other New Yorkers who do delivery work, use multiple platforms to make the most of their time, so it is frustrating for them when they are able to earn a much higher wage on apps like DoorDash and UberEats, but are excluded from that same wage on apps like Instacart and Shipt. This inconsistency has caused our members to have to do the same work for less pay, many of whom are just trying to make ends meet.
We were encouraged to hear from our elected leaders at the New York City Council that there is an opportunity to change this disparity for delivery workers. The Council has introduced two new bills, Int 1133 and Int 1135, that would expand the minimum pay rate to cover every single delivery worker, regardless of the platform they use. This is a huge step that the Council could take towards raising the minimum wage for another group of workers and ensuring that New York’s immigrant communities have the economic opportunity and dignified wages that they deserve.
Whether it’s a full-time job or a few hours a week to earn money on the side, immigrant New Yorkers rely on the opportunities provided by delivery platforms and it’s time for all of them to be paid a living wage. If we miss this opportunity, we are risking cutting the immigrant community out of a minimum wage for an essential service many of them provide for the city’s residents. It is imperative that we show New York’s new arrivals support.
From all of us at Afrikana, we are calling on the City to live up to their commitment to the immigrant community by passing these two bills. It’s the least we can do as New Yorkers to support the people working so hard to keep our city running.
Adama Bah is the Chief Executive Director and Founder of Afrikana, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting African migrants in New York City.
