DoorDash Agrees to $131.5 Million Settlement With New York City Over Delivery Worker Underpayments

DoorDash's $131.5 Million Settlement With New York City

DoorDash has agreed to pay New York City $131.5 million to resolve a Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) investigation that found the delivery platform failed to pay, underpaid, or paid late more than 260,000 delivery workers. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the settlement, with more than $115 million designated for direct restitution to workers and over $16 million allocated to civil penalties and costs. City officials described the agreement as the largest worker settlement in New York City history and the largest involving food delivery workers secured by a U.S. municipality.

Scope of the DCWP Investigation

The DCWP investigation analyzed 152 million individual payment transactions and 110 million working hours drawn from DoorDash records, covering the period from April 2022 through June 2026. Investigators determined that thousands of workers were never paid for completed deliveries, thousands more were paid later than required, and that DoorDash excluded certain trip and on-call hours when calculating compensation under the city's minimum-pay rules. Workers do not need to file individual claims or provide evidence; the city identified eligible workers through DoorDash's records, with some payments amounting to roughly twice the original underpayment.

DoorDash's Acknowledgment and Compliance Commitments

DoorDash acknowledged that some Dashers were underpaid or paid late, attributing the violations to technical bugs and complications such as trips that crossed city boundaries or involved multiple pickup and drop-off points. The company stated, "Simply put, we screwed up," and committed to adopting the city's calculation method for on-call time rather than continue disputing the issue. The agreement subjects DoorDash to three years of compliance monitoring, including monthly reporting to city regulators and additional internal controls.

New York City's Delivery Worker Pay Framework

New York City's minimum pay rate for app-based restaurant delivery workers currently stands at $22.13 per hour before tips. Affected workers are expected to begin receiving settlement notices in late October. Mayor Mamdani said workers should be paid "on time and in full," and DCWP Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine said the case underscored the importance of letting workers, rather than opaque systems, surface payment problems. Delivery worker and organizer Rosendo Tacam, of the Workers Justice Project, described the outcome as evidence that workers speaking up collectively can secure their rights.

Next Steps for Workers and DoorDash

Settlement notices to the more than 260,000 affected delivery workers are expected to begin going out in late October 2026, with restitution payments and civil penalties to follow under the three-year compliance-monitoring regime imposed on DoorDash.