Delivery worker pay is in the spotlight with a new NYC tipping rule

• A New York City law requiring a tip prompt on apps like Uber Eats takes effect on Monday.
• The delivery services will have to add a default 10% tip prompt at checkout.
• Uber and DoorDash have fought the law in court and say it will lead to fewer orders.

New York City's food delivery workers could see a bump in tips after a new law takes effect on Monday.

Starting January 26, food delivery apps, including DoorDash and Uber Eats, will have to display for customers the option to tip a courier when they pay under city law. It comes roughly two years after some companies moved the tipping option to after an order is delivered.

The law is the latest example of the debate over when and where tipping should be expected. It's a particularly important topic for delivery workers, many of whom rely on tips to make the job financially worthwhile.

Under New York City's new law, the apps will also have to set the default gratuity to 10% at checkout.

"It's not difficult for them to do it, they used to do it, they have the tech to do it immediately," Elizabeth Wagoner at the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection told Business Insider in an interview.

Uber and DoorDash have unsuccessfully fought the law

Wagoner, a deputy commissioner at the DCWP, said the department will enforce the new law by monitoring to ensure apps comply with it and pursuing legal action if they don't. Protections for delivery workers, including the tip law and enforcing an existing minimum pay law, have been a focus for the department since Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office on January 1.

Under the new law, customers will still have the final say on how much to tip — or whether to tip at all. But research suggests it matters if customers see the option to tip earlier.

The DCWP estimated earlier this month that delivery workers in the city have missed out on $550 million in tips since December 2023 as a result of companies moving the tipping option to after delivery.

The department expects to see an increase in delivery workers' tips once the apps resume offering the option at checkout, Wagoner said.

Tips are a major source of gig worker earnings on apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats. Nationally, tips accounted for almost 49% of food delivery workers' earnings in 2025, according to Gridwise, a data analytics company.

In a lawsuit that DoorDash and Uber filed last month to block the law, the companies said that mandating a tipping option at checkout would lead to "tipping fatigue" among customers. On Friday, a federal judge rejected the companies' suit.

"Allowing this law to take effect means we will likely see an immediate drop off in orders for New York's small businesses, a worse experience for customers, and fewer overall deliveries for New York City dashers," a DoorDash spokesperson told Business Insider after the court decision. DoorDash did not directly respond to questions about its concern that orders would decrease as a result of the law.

An Uber spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

In late 2023, about a month before DoorDash removed the option to tip at checkout in New York City, it warned some customers that their orders might take longer to arrive if they didn't tip in advance.

Delivery workers are hoping for a boost from tips

Ricky, who makes deliveries for Uber Eats and DoorDash in Brooklyn, said he's looking forward to the law taking effect after receiving fewer tips since the apps removed the option to tip at checkout.

He knows other delivery workers who work for Grubhub, a delivery service that has continued to prompt customers to tip at checkout in New York City. While a good day for him on Uber Eats involves making just over $100, Ricky said, some of the Grubhub workers make double that, thanks in large part to gratuities from customers.

"When they show me their earnings, they make a significant amount of tips," he said.

Ricky said he's hoping for a similar bump in earnings after the city's tip law takes effect on Monday. "That would give me the motivation to stay outside and work all day," he said.

With fewer tips over the past two years, many delivery workers in New York City have had to take extra orders to cover their costs, such as the cost of an e-bike to make deliveries, said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Workers Justice Project and cofounder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, two advocacy groups for delivery workers.

"Often, tipping allows them to have the additional income that they need to cover the additional operating costs," she said.

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