Getting that pizza delivered could cost $5 to $7 more if the city adopts a new pay rate for delivery-app workers.
A controversial proposal by the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would hike pay for GrubHub, UberEats, and DoorDash delivery workers far past the $15 minimum wage.
Under one plan, deliverers would be paid $33.27 per hour for time spent on active delivery.
A second plan would pay them $19.96 hourly for the total time spent online and delivering.
A final decision from the agency is expanded soon.
The hikes would go into full effect in 2025.
A law passed by the City Council in 2021 mandates food delivery apps must pay their workers a minimum hourly wage.
The proposed wage hike — derived using a complex formula — is significantly higher than a $23.82-per-hour plan the agency floated in November.
A city-commissioned study said the earlier proposed rate would increase consumers’ cost of delivery by $5.18 per order, on average, as the apps pass the increased costs onto consumers.
“The extreme pay rate, $33.27 per hour for platforms selecting the trip time pay option, will result in unsustainable new costs for New York City consumers and hundreds of millions in lost revenue for local restaurants and businesses,” Sascha Owen, a DoorDash executive said at a hearing on the subject earlier this month.
In a 40-hour week, the pay hike could see app delivery workers making nearly $70,000 — considerably more than a first-year NYPD officer’s $42,500.
“I’m already paying like $12 in DoorDash fees per visit for something that costs $15. I already know the pain,” said Nick Vroom, a Manhattan sales associate, who called the new idea “infuriating” and said he would probably start picking up his own food.
Experts warned the hikes could have cascading effects that would ripple across the restaurant industry.
“I’m all for anybody making the best situation for themselves, but it will increase the price of labor in the kitchen because many of the people who currently work in kitchens could just as easily be riding up and down the avenues on bikes,” said Dave Goodside, longtime owner of the Beach Cafe on the Upper East Side.
Goodside added, “I have already lost skilled cooks who have come to me and told me that they left this job making $22 an hour to work as a delivery person.”
City reps said they were “finalizing the rule and look forward to announcing soon” — but did not dispute the numbers.