This op-ed is part of Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

Last week, New York City announced a groundbreaking $131.5 million settlement with DoorDash. The largest such resolution in city history, the case involved over 260,000 workers who were paid late and in some cases not paid at all. 

It also raises the question: If these underpayments happened in New York City, where DoorDash knew it was under scrutiny, what’s happening to gig workers everywhere else when no one is watching?

This case underscores the urgent need for far greater investment in protecting workers’ rights everywhere, and the upcoming midterms, with the fresh starts they will hopefully bring, offer an opportunity for state and local leaders to take concrete action. 

Some context for the recent case: New York City, along with Seattle, is one of only two cities that sets a specific minimum wage for DoorDash and other gig delivery workers. Passed in 2023, the law survived a legal challenge from DoorDash and its peers. The city has an agency that began working immediately to implement the statute, partnering with Los Deliveristas Unidos, the worker group that pushed for the pay floor. 

And all of that was before the new Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, took office. Just two weeks into 2026, Sam Levine, Mamdani’s Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, announced a “compliance blitz” on the law, warning DoorDash and others by name.

No one can say DoorDash wasn’t on notice. 

I enforced state labor laws in New York........

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