Historic settlement will return more than $115 million to delivery workers following a sweeping investigation into unpaid wages and payment violations.
NEW YORK — DoorDash has agreed to pay $131.5 million to settle widespread wage violations affecting more than 260,000 delivery workers in New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced, calling it the largest worker settlement in the city’s history.
The settlement will provide more than $115 million directly to workers who were underpaid, paid late or not paid at all. More than $16 million will cover civil penalties and costs.
The agreement follows an extensive investigation by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which uncovered violations of New York City’s delivery worker laws, including failures to properly compensate workers for delivery and on-call time.
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Investigators analyzed billions of rows of company data, identifying more than 152 million payment transactions and 110 million working hours. The investigation began after dozens of delivery workers filed complaints about missing or delayed wages.
“When a worker earns a wage, they deserve to be paid that wage — not tomorrow, not after a lawsuit, but on time and in full,” Mamdani said.
According to city officials, some workers will receive significantly more than their original unpaid wages. A worker owed $1,000 who received no payment, for example, will receive $3,000 under the settlement. A worker whose $1,000 payment was delayed beyond the legally permitted period will receive $2,000.
The investigation also found that DoorDash improperly excluded certain categories of delivery and on-call time when calculating workers’ earnings. The city’s minimum pay rate for app-based food delivery workers is currently $22.13 per hour, excluding tips.
In addition to compensating workers, the settlement requires DoorDash to implement new compliance measures, submit monthly reports to city regulators for three years and strengthen its internal payment systems.
The city will partner with Workers Justice Project and Princeton University’s Workers’ Algorithm Observatory to develop technology that allows delivery workers to share trip and earnings data directly with regulators. The system is intended to help identify wage violations more quickly.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su said the settlement demonstrates the importance of enforcing wage protections and giving workers greater control over their rights.
Workers will begin receiving payments this fall. Starting in late October, eligible workers will receive personalized emails detailing compensation owed for violations that occurred between April 22, 2022, and June 28, 2026.
Workers will not need to file claims. They can choose electronic payments or checks by mail. A smaller group of workers is expected to receive payments in early 2027.
The settlement also requires DoorDash to make software changes to ensure workers are properly compensated for delivery assignments and to establish an internal compliance monitoring program.
City officials said the agreement represents a significant step toward strengthening protections for New York City’s growing app-based delivery workforce.
Affected workers can obtain additional information at nyc.gov/doordash .