Will the real Mayor Adams stand up ... for workers?
The mayor is expected to veto a Council bill that would expand the restaurant delivery worker minimum wage to the more than 20,000 grocery delivery workers — a bill that would effectively achieve the goal championed by this very same mayor in a 2022 report.
In the administration's own white paper, the mayor said he sought to revitalize the post-Covid economy by “expanding minimum labor standards to more app-based delivery workers" — also known as closing the so-called "Instacart loophole" that lets big tech giants avoid paying supermarket workers the city mandated delivery worker minimum wage.
“In addition to the roughly 65,000 app-based restaurant delivery workers who just recently won increased worker protections — including better control over routes, pay transparency, and minimum pay rates — another estimated 17,000 app-based delivery workers help move essential items to New Yorkers every day, from groceries to clothing to medicine,” the report reads.
Nonetheless, the mayor has been silent since the Council passed several bills aiming to close the loophole. Many insiders expect the mayor to veto the package, which he must do before next week. A City Hall spokesperson told Streetsblog, "We are reviewing the legislation."
To Council Member Sandy Nurse (D-Bushwick), the prime sponsor of one Intro 1135, which would specifically expand the minimum wage to include grocery delivery workers, Adams’s reluctance to signal his support doesn’t make sense, considering that the bill would do exactly what the report called for.
"Mayor Adams promised to raise pay standards for tens of thousands of grocery delivery workers, and signing Intro 1135 into law is key to fulfilling that. He made this commitment clear in 2022,” Nurse told Streetsblog through a spokesperson.
The five-bill package passed by the Council last month also included Intro 1133, which would expand pay-parity to all other app based delivery workers within 18 months, broadening the scope even further. That bill was sponsored by Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez (D-Bushwick).
The mayor's silence on the bills raises concerns, given that Hizzoner is shifting rightward during his re-election campaign. He recently vetoed another labor-rights bill — this one would decriminalize street vending — that had veto-proof support from the majority of the Council and parts of his own administration.
That bill, sponsored by Council Member Shekar Krishnan (D-Jackson Heights), also was in line with a mayoral initiative, in this case recommendations from his “Street Vendor Advisory Board” in 2022. (The Council has promised to over-ride the veto.)
The recent delivery worker bills also passed with a veto-proof majority and enjoyed enthusiastic support from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, the city agency that upholds the current labor standards for delivery workers.
“The minimum pay rate ... does not cover thousands of other workers who perform deliveries of other goods, like groceries and household items,” DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga said at a hearing in December at which she said she supported the bills. “This package of bills would close that gap, expanding minimum pay protections to cover at least 20,000 more delivery workers immediately and thousands more within 18 months.”
Still, Instacart, the country’s largest grocery delivery company which brought in over $3 billion in revenue last year, is fighting hard, hoping to peel off Council support in the event of a veto from the mayor.
The company is funding organizations, placing op-eds, and running ads to try and convince the mayor and New Yorkers that paying their workers minimum wage would somehow harm low income residents and make all groceries more expensive.
Nurse called the bills an urgent step in ensuring the city keeps up with the rapidly growing and exploitative delivery economy.
“There is an urgent need to keep apace with the evolving economy, ensuring that innovation does not become a smokescreen for exploitation. Protecting workers must come before protecting corporate profits," said a spokesperson for the Council member.
