Mamdani administration targets Motoclick for stealing worker pay
New York City has filed a landmark lawsuit against delivery application Motoclick, signaling the beginning of an era in which gig economy companies will face serious consequences for wage violations under Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration. The city accuses the company and its CEO Juan Pablo Salinas Salek of stealing millions from workers through illegal fees and systematic wage violations, seeking to shut down the company’s operations entirely. Delivery workers who filed complaints with the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection described conditions that reveal the scale of corporate abuse. One worker, Gustavo Ajche from Guatemala and member of Los Deliveristas Unidos, showed evidence that Motoclick paid him just $6.75 for three hours of work in November 2024, far below the city’s $19.56 minimum hourly wage for delivery workers that was in effect at that time. The company employed multiple mechanisms to steal worker earnings: charging ten-dollar penalties for canceled orders, deducting full refund costs from paychecks, and in some cases claiming workers owed the company money for shifts they completed.
Coordinated Enforcement Signals New Direction
Announcing the lawsuit on January 15, Mayor Mamdani stated that his administration intends to show that the era of impunity when it comes to profiting off working-class New Yorkers’ lives is going to come to an end. Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Samuel Levine, previously head of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection under President Biden, made clear the city would pursue aggressive enforcement strategies against predatory companies.
Pattern of Abuse Across Gig Economy
The Motoclick suit is not isolated action but opening salvo in broader worker protection campaign. Earlier in the week, Levine’s department released a report documenting that DoorDash and Uber intentionally redesigned their applications in December 2023 to make customer tipping more difficult, moving the tip option to after checkout rather than during ordering. The interface changes reduced average tips from two dollars and seventeen cents per delivery on competing apps to just seventy-six cents per delivery on DoorDash and Uber combined.
Big Tech Companies Resist New Protections
DoorDash and Uber have actively fought enforcement of new worker protections taking effect January 26, including requirements for tipping options at checkout and expanded minimum pay for grocery delivery workers. The companies’ resistance demonstrates their calculation that legal challenges cost less than compliance with worker-protection standards.
