Key Takeaways
- DoorDash agreed to pay $131.5 million after New York City investigators found it underpaid, paid late, or withheld wages from more than 260,000 delivery workers.
- Workers will receive more than $115 million, with some eligible for up to triple their missing pay, while $16 million will cover penalties and costs.
- The city will notify eligible workers in late October, and DoorDash must file monthly compliance reports and upgrade its payment software for the next three years.
DoorDash is about to pay a hefty price for shortchanging its New York City delivery workers. The food delivery giant has agreed to a record-breaking $131.5 million settlement after city investigators found that more than 260,000 workers were underpaid, paid late, or never received their wages.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the agreement on Tuesday, September 22, calling it the largest worker settlement in New York City history. More than $115 million will go directly into workers' pockets, while the remaining $16 million will cover civil penalties and costs. And for some workers, the compensation could amount to significantly more than their missing paychecks.
Under the agreement, a delivery worker who earned $1,000 but never received payment could collect $3,000. Someone who received that same $1,000 paycheck later than legally permitted could receive an additional $2,000.
"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. "DoorDash underpaid more than 260,000 workers, and today we are getting that money back."
The investigation started with complaints from delivery workers who said their paychecks were either missing or arriving late. But as investigators dug deeper, they uncovered problems extending far beyond those initial complaints.
The city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection examined billions of records, identifying more than 152 million payment transactions and 110 million working hours. Investigators discovered that DoorDash had excluded certain delivery and on-call hours when calculating wages, even after adjusting its hourly compensation to comply with the city's minimum pay requirements in December 2023.
For affected workers, those missing wages weren't just numbers on a spreadsheet.
"I gave DoorDash everything I had, and then they deactivated me and didn't pay me for my last week of work," said delivery worker Rosendo Tacam, a member of the Workers Justice Project. "I felt angry and disrespected."
The settlement comes as New York City continues pursuing labor violations involving some of the country's biggest restaurant brands.
Earlier this year, a Taco Bell and Dunkin' franchisee in New York City agreed to pay more than $1.5 million over alleged employee scheduling violations. New York City also previously secured a $38.9 million settlement with Starbucks over scheduling violations.
But the DoorDash agreement doesn't end with a check.
For the next three years, the company must submit monthly compliance reports and implement software changes to prevent future underpayments. A new monitoring system will also allow delivery workers to share their earnings and trip information directly with city investigators, giving regulators another way to identify potential violations.
And workers won't have to navigate a complicated claims process to collect their money. The city has already identified eligible recipients and will begin notifying them in late October. Payments are expected to begin this fall, with a smaller second round scheduled for early 2027.
