New York
DCWP-mandated minimum pay rate (enforced)
tap to expand auditWhat was directly verified: NYC DCWP press release dated January 2026 confirming Local Law 115 inflation adjustment from $21.44 to $22.13 effective April 1, 2026. Multiple independent corroborations (DCWP Delivery Worker Rights page, Mamdani administration mayoral statement, third-party legal analyses).
What was directly verified: NYC DCWP press release dated January 2026 confirming Local Law 115 inflation adjustment from $21.44 to $22.13 effective April 1, 2026. Multiple independent corroborations (DCWP Delivery Worker Rights page, Mamdani administration mayoral statement, third-party legal analyses).
What was assumed (not directly verified)
The published net_hourly_usd: 16.02 is a tax/expense calculation derived from the gross figure; the methodology of that derivation was not separately re-verified.
Caveats a journalist should understand
This is the LEGAL MINIMUM PAY RATE for engaged time, enforced by mandatory monthly reporting from delivery apps. Workers may earn more (tips, multi-app strategies). Rate covers food and grocery delivery (the latter newly covered effective Jan 26, 2026).
What would invalidate this
Inflation adjustment in April 2027 will produce a new figure. DCWP enforcement gaps if surfaced. Court ruling overturning Local Law 115.
Re-verify by
2026-10-27
Earnings (USD per hour)
Source: NYC DCWP observed pay per hour worked (trip + on-call)
What would you take home in New York?
Take-home, weekly
$464
Take-home, monthly
$2,008
Gross, weekly
$645
Gross, monthly
$2,794
With a 1BR apartment outside the city centre at $2854/mo, rent costs more than your monthly take-home (142% of monthly net).
Take-home is gross hourly minus an estimated tax/expense rate per country. See the methodology page for the derivation. This widget assumes you actually work the hours you set. For app-based delivery, a portion of logged-in time is unpaid waiting; the headline rate reflects engaged time only where regulators have defined it.
Cost of living vs. earnings
That works out to roughly 51 hours per week. Rent at $2,854 per month is 77 percent of gross monthly earnings, which puts a New York delivery driver in HUD's “severely cost-burdened” band by the federal definition (over 30 percent of gross income on housing). Measured against net take-home pay, which is what a worker actually has available to spend, the same rent is 107 percent. Affordable rent at this earnings rate, defined by HUD as no more than 30 percent of gross income, would be around $1,120 per month. Across the 50 cities in the dataset, New York ranks 13th for hours needed to cover rent, where lower is better.
Pay vs. local labour market
Gross hourly is 107% of local minimum wage, 61% of local median.
Notes
NYC also mandates a minimum pay rate of $22.13/hr for ENGAGED time (Local Laws 115 and 124, food and grocery), a legal floor rather than a measurement. The index publishes DCWP's observed pay per hour worked instead, so New York is comparable with cities that measure full-shift pay. The mandate does NOT cover pharmacy, flower or general package couriers.
View New York on the interactive map
See full source citations for this city on the sources page. Read about how each metric is computed in the methodology.
Primary earnings source: www.nyc.gov/assets/dca/downloads/xlsx/Restaurant-Delivery-App-Data-Quarterly.xlsx · archived