The popular delivery apps Uber, DoorDash and GrubHub on Thursday lost their bid to block New York City\u2019s minimum wage mandate for app-based delivery workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Moyne ruled against the companies after they sued the city in July, when the rule was to go into effect. The decision will now make way for the minimum pay rate, which is scheduled to eventually reach $19.96 per hour, to be implemented for some 65,000<\/a> of the city\u2019s delivery workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMulti-billion dollar companies cannot profit off the backs of immigrant workers while paying them pennies in New York City and get away with it,\u201d Ligia Guallpa, the director of the New York-based Workers Justice Project, which helped lead the advocacy efforts for a minimum wage, said in a statement. \u201cThe judge\u2019s ruling is another reminder that workers will always win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Josh Gold, an Uber spokesman, said the mandate would harm couriers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe city continues to lie to workers and the public,\u201d Gold said in a statement. \u201cThis law will put thousands of New Yorkers out of work and force the remaining couriers to compete against each other to deliver orders faster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Grubhub spokesperson called the decision \u201cdisappointment, saying in a statement that the company is \u201cevaluating our next legal steps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will now be forced to make changes to our platform that will have adverse consequences for delivery partners, consumers and independent businesses,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe remain confident in our legal position and firmly believe that the City\u2019s rule, while well-intentioned, is the result of a flawed rulemaking process that was not applied consistently to the food delivery industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DoorDash did not respond to an NBC News\u2019 request for comment. But the company called the decision in June by the city\u2019s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to raise the minimum wage \u201cdeeply misguided<\/a>,\u201d arguing that it would result in fewer opportunities for its delivery workers, price more customers out of orders and affect jobs at local restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decision \u201cignores the unintended consequences it will cause and sadly will undermine the very delivery workers it seeks to support,\u201d a spokesperson for the company said in a statement at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Thursday\u2019s ruling was a loss for the three companies, Relay \u2014 a smaller platform that had also sued the city but operates as a courier service for restaurants \u2014 was granted an injunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moyne temporarily delayed the mandate in July as he considered the companies\u2019 request. The three major apps had argued that the higher wage mandate would cause price hikes for consumers while simultaneously hurting delivery workers\u2019 pay by causing the companies to track the time they spend on the apps without making deliveries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, some app-based delivery workers across the city rely primarily on tips to make their living, earning an average of $7.09 per hour<\/a>. Because app-based delivery workers are considered independent contractors, they have traditionally been excluded from labor protections and exempt from minimum wage requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The mandate announced in June would start minimum pay at $17.96 per hour, increasing to the $19.96 standard by April 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is pretty much changing not only the course of history, but \u2026 guaranteeing and expanding protections for gig workers,\u201d Guallpa told NBC News in June after the mandate passed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n