Courts Decline to Halt NYC Delivery Worker Amendments, Leaving Employers Subject to New Compliance Obligations

Takeaways

• New York City continues to enforce the City’s Delivery Worker Laws, with key amendments taking effect 01.26.26, expanding protections for third-party delivery workers, as legal challenges to the new laws progress in federal court. 
• The new laws extend the minimum pay rate to cover third-party grocery delivery workers and strengthen worker protections in various other areas, including requiring restaurant- and grocery-delivery apps to offer a tipping option at checkout.
• Federal judges denied certain business entities’ motions for preliminary injunctions, rejecting their attempts to block the amendments from taking effect.

Related link

• NYC’s Expanded Minimum Pay Protections for App-Based Grocery Delivery Workers Arrive, Bringing Varying Effective Dates + Possible Legal Challenges

Article

Federal judges have refused to block implementation of amendments to New York City’s Delivery Worker Laws, which mandate the minimum pay rate and other requirements for certain workers of third-party food delivery services. Accordingly, these businesses must continue to comply with the Delivery Worker Rules.

Background

On Sept. 10, 2025, the New York City Council voted to override then-Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes and enact legislation extending minimum pay requirements and other protections to third-party grocery delivery workers performing work for third-party grocery delivery services (aka “grocery delivery apps”) generally consistent with those already in place for third-party food delivery workers performing work for third-party food delivery services (aka “restaurant delivery apps”). See our article, NYC’s Expanded Minimum Pay Protections for App-Based Grocery Delivery Workers Arrive, Bringing Varying Effective Dates + Possible Legal Challenges, for more information.

Amended Delivery Worker Rules

On or about Jan. 26, 2026, New York City adopted amendments to the City’s Delivery Worker Rules following a public hearing and comment period.

The amended rules provide clarity on key aspects of rights and obligations, including:

• Effective Jan. 26, 2026, implementing minimum pay protections for newly covered third-party grocery delivery workers.
   
• Clarifying the applicability of the rules to “third‑party courier services,” “third‑party food delivery services,” and “third‑party grocery delivery services,” and revising the definitions of those terms.
   
• Effective Jan. 26, 2026, requiring both grocery delivery and restaurant delivery apps to provide consumers with an option to tip third-party delivery workers before or while they are placing an order (rather than after checking out), including a 10% tip option and an option to manually input a tip.
   
• Clarifying the methods for calculating worker compensation, including resolving definitional issues regarding “trip time” and the treatment of compensation for on‑call time.
   
• Modifying maximum distance requirements to require third-party food delivery services to display, for each trip offered to a worker, the worker’s maximum distance setting in effect, as well as the trip’s direct and routed distances.
   
• Requiring retention of certain records to ensure that third‑party food delivery services and third‑party grocery delivery services provide customers an opportunity to tip third-party food delivery workers and third-party grocery delivery workers.
   
• Requiring retention of certain records to enforce laws establishing contracted delivery workers’ rights to receive written pay statements.

Following the amendments and adoption of the Final Rule, these protections apply to third-party grocery delivery services and third-party food delivery services — although certain protections apply only to one or the other, noted below:

• Both third-party grocery delivery services and third-party restaurant delivery services must: 
  • Pay workers the minimum pay rate; 
  • Pay workers at least once a week; 
  • Provide customers an opportunity before or at the time they place an order using the app for tipping a worker, with tip options including at least 10% of the purchase price and an option to manually enter a tip percentage or amount;
  • Provide workers a written pay statement that itemizes gross and net compensation and all permissible deductions for that pay period no later than seven days after the end of the pay period;
  • Provide workers a free food delivery bag after the worker completes six food deliveries for an app.
     
• Third-party grocery delivery workers and third-party food delivery workers are covered under the bathroom access law, which ensures that workers are permitted to use the bathroom at most pickup locations in New York City.
   
• For every trip, before a third-party grocery delivery worker and/or third-party food delivery worker accepts an offer, the app must tell workers all of the following: 
  • Pickup and drop-off locations; 
  • Estimated time and routed distance for the trip; 
  • Amount of any tip selected by a customer; and
  • Amount of pay or the hourly pay rate the worker will receive for the tip, without counting tips.
     
• For every trip, before a third-party food delivery worker accepts an offer, the app must tell the worker: 
  • The direct distance between the first pickup location and the final drop-off location and the worker’s maximum distance in effect, if applicable.
     
• Third-party restaurant delivery services are required to allow workers to set limits on their trips.
   
• Third-party restaurant delivery services are required to give workers the ability to specify the maximum distance between the first pickup location to a final drop-off location at the end of the trip.

Lawsuits

Following the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s (DCWP) adoption of these amendments, certain business entities filed a lawsuit in federal court, the District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to prevent the amendments — particularly the up-front tipping framework — from taking effect. The companies argued that the new rules violated the First Amendment in that they require the companies to convey a “government mandated message.” They also argued that the rules would worsen customer “tipping fatigue.” On Jan. 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge George Daniels denied the companies’ requests for injunctive relief. Judge Daniels noted that the tipping requirements advance the City’s legitimate objectives of enhancing cost transparency at checkout, restoring consumer choice, and providing additional protections for third-party delivery workers.

In a separate legal action filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, another business challenged New York City’s minimum pay requirements for third-party grocery delivery workers and moved for a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the laws. The business argued, among other things, that the City Council did not contemplate third-party grocery delivery workers when it enacted the minimum hourly wage of $21.44 for third-party delivery workers. On or about Jan. 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl denied a motion for a preliminary injunction. A subsequent request for an injunction pending appeal also was denied, and a request to pause the case while an appeal is pending is currently being adjudicated. The minimum pay requirements for third-party grocery delivery workers became effective on Jan. 26, 2026.

* * *

With no injunctive relief granted to the challengers, covered delivery platforms must continue to comply with the amended rules, including the minimum pay, tipping, disclosure, and record retention requirements, as the City continues to enforce its delivery worker regulatory framework. The DCWP has announced the minimum pay rate will increase from $21.44 an hour to $22.13 an hour for both grocery and food delivery workers, a 3.2% adjustment for inflation, beginning April 1, 2026.

If you have any questions regarding compliance with the new laws, please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney.