DoorDash to pay $131.5 million after NYC finds delivery workers were underpaid

New York City and DoorDash reached a $131.5 million settlement after the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) found that DoorDash failed to pay many delivery workers on time or in full. City officials described the deal as the largest worker settlement in the city's history and the largest municipal settlement involving food delivery workers in the U.S.

The total settlement is $131.5 million, which the city says includes more than $115 million directed to worker payments and roughly $16.7 million in civil penalties and costs. The city's investigation analyzed billions of lines of DoorDash data, including over 152 million payment transactions and 110 million hours worked.

Who is eligible and how much they'll receive

The relevant period and notice timeline

The settlement applies to underpayments that occurred between April 22, 2022, and June 28, 2026. Personalized notices to affected workers are scheduled to begin going out in late October. Workers do not need to file claims to receive payments.

The agreement establishes a new compliance monitoring system driven by worker input. DoorDash must provide detailed payment and trip-level data to the city for three years. Workers will also get tools to share trip and earnings information directly with city officials.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani emphasized on the city's announcement that "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." DoorDash acknowledged the problems and said, "Simply put, we screwed up," attributing the errors to technical issues and complex delivery situations while committing to pay workers in full, on time.

The settlement comes amid ongoing enforcement of New York City's minimum-pay rules for app-based couriers. The current city minimum pay rate cited in the announcement is $22.13 per hour, excluding tips.

Workers receive immediate compensation for identified underpayments and a mechanism for ongoing oversight: three years of city access to DoorDash data plus worker-facing reporting tools. The city framed the settlement as both restitution for past violations and a way to prevent future underpayments.

Affected couriers should watch for personalized notices beginning in late October. According to the city, no action is required to receive payments once a worker is identified as impacted for the covered period.

The settlement provides substantial direct payments to a large number of New York City delivery workers, introduces a multi-year data-sharing and monitoring requirement for DoorDash, and sets a procedural path for the city to track compliance going forward.