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In a blow to Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub, a New York judge on Thursday ruled to allow the implementation of the minimum pay rate of $18 per hour for New York City\u2019s food delivery workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The delivery apps sued the city in July, when the city\u2019s 65,000 delivery workers would have begun seeing hourly payments, in an attempt to block the standard from being implemented. They were granted a temporary injunction at the time. Acting Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Moyne today ruled against the companies, making way for the minimum pay rate that will reach $19.96 per hour in 2024 to account for inflation.<\/p>\n \u201cMulti-billion dollar companies cannot profit off the backs of immigrant workers while paying them pennies in New York City and get away with it,\u201d Ligia Guallpa, the director of the New York-based Workers Justice Project, which helped lead the advocacy efforts for a minimum wage, said in a statement. \u201cThe judge\u2019s ruling is another reminder that workers will always win.\u201d<\/p>\n Delivery workers are considered to be independent contractors and therefore do not benefit from employee protections like minimum wage guarantee, workers\u2019 compensation or paid sick leave.<\/p>\n The three delivery apps argued that a higher wage mandate would ultimately harm the end consumer, who would suffer from price hikes. They also argued it would hurt delivery workers by forcing companies to track time spent on the apps without making deliveries.<\/p>\n \u201cThe City continues to lie to workers and the public. This law will put thousands of New Yorkers out of work and force the remaining couriers to compete against each other to deliver orders faster,\u201d said Josh Gold, an Uber spokesperson.<\/p>\n Relay, a smaller NYC-based delivery platform that operates as a courier service for restaurants, also sued the city and was granted an injunction.<\/p>\n \u201cRelay\u2019s couriers have average earnings of more than $30 per hour. Today\u2019s decision protects those couriers and allows Relay, a local NYC startup, to continue to find opportunities for even more delivery workers to benefit with high earnings,\u201d said Relay\u2019s lawyer Adam Cohen in a statement. \u201cWe are grateful for Justice Moyne\u2019s well-reasoned opinion that Relay is likely to succeed with its argument that the rule did not take its unique business model into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n Per NYC\u2019s mandate, companies that use delivery workers will choose between one of two minimum pay rate options outlined by the city<\/a>. The first option requires companies to pay a worker at least $17.96 per hour, excluding tips, for time spent connected to the app, which includes time spent waiting for a gig.<\/p>\n The other option involves apps paying $0.50 per minute of active time, exclusive of trips. Active time happens from the moment a worker accepts a delivery to the moment they drop off the food.<\/p>\n Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub haven\u2019t specified which method of payment they might follow, but it\u2019s possible they\u2019d focus on the $0.50 per active minute option. Paying per active minute is already written into how these companies do business in many locations.<\/p>\n