CITY BILL TO ‘TIP’ SCALES

Apps ‘must ask’ for it

Hate having tipping options shoved in your face? Too bad, says a City Council member.

Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan) introduced a bill that would force delivery apps to put tipping options front and center when you order, with 10% as the default.

“All we’re asking for . . . is for the tipping option to return to what it used to be. More people are inclined to tip if they see the option prior to getting their meal. Once they have their meal, they’re tapped out,” Abreu told The Post.

Abreu believes delivery apps are cheating workers out of their tips since being forced to cough up a nearly $20 minimum hourly wage.

He said that after the city decided this month to boost wages, apps changed their procedures “in retaliation,” making it more difficult to tip the drivers.

DoorDash and UberEats removed the option to tip before a customer receives their order, while GrubHub, which encompasses Seamless, lowered the default option for tip amount.

“We see this as an equity issue. Delivery workers are working really hard to bring us our food, and we want to bring the power back to consumers to decide if they want to tip,” Abreu said.

He estimated the city’s nearly 60,000 food delivery workers could make $9 million in annual tips under the two bills.

Uber spokesperson Josh Gold told The Post that tipping should be a “reward for excellent service after service is provided.”

“App workers in New York City already make a minimum of $19.56 per hour, and customers have the option to tip their delivery worker on every order,” he said in a statement. “The city’s blind focus on overregulating a single industry has already made costs skyrocket.

“They had suggested platforms like ours could make changes to tipping based on this extreme policy, but now want to go even further in their overreach.”

Carrying their ‘wait’

The city on April 1 announced it would boost the minimum pay rate for food-delivery workers by around $1.50 to $19.56 per hour, starting on April 1, 2025.

The city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection last year had set a $17.96 hourly wage — from the prior rate of $7.09.

But Abreu said that pay rate is misleading.

“A lot of apps are spreading misinformation and saying [delivery workers] get paid by the hour,” he said. “It’s not by the hour. It’s for time worked. When they’re waiting for an order, they’re not getting paid for the wait time.”