The City Council overrode three vetoes from Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, passing legislation that gives 20,000 grocery delivery workers a higher minimum pay rate and bars issuing criminal summonses for unlicensed street vending.
The Council broke into applause after the votes, a strong rebuke of Mr. Adams as he faces pressure from advisers to President Trump and powerful New York City business leaders to abandon his long shot re-election bid.
The mayor has said that he vetoed the bills because they would allow unlicensed street vending to grow unabated, and would raise the price of groceries. But proponents of the measures accused Mr. Adams of attempting to curry favor with donors to his struggling re-election campaign, and to support President Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
The Trump Justice Department dropped a five-count corruption indictment against Mr. Adams in April, arguing that the charges interfered with the mayor’s ability to cooperate with their mass deportation plans. A State Supreme Court justice ruled this week that the mayor’s executive order allowing federal immigration authorities into the Rikers Island jail complex was illegal because of the “impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest” involving Mr. Adams and the Trump administration.
“The mayor’s vetoes demonstrates that he prioritizes taking action to fuel greater corporate profits at the expense of workers in our city who continue to be exploited,” Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the City Council, said at a rally on the steps of City Hall before the overrides. “They can’t afford and shouldn’t be forced to struggle because of Mayor Adams abandoning them for his own political interests.”
Zachary Nosanchuk, a spokesman for the mayor, dismissed the idea that Mr. Adams was doing Mr. Trump’s bidding. “The mayor has been very clear that he agrees with the president on some issues and disagrees on others. This isn’t an issue the president has weighed in on,” he said.
The Council has now overridden eight of his vetoes since Mr. Adams became mayor.
Two of the bills that the Council passed will extend worker protections to grocery delivery workers and require that they be paid a minimum wage of $21.44 per hour. The figure matches the minimum pay rate that restaurant delivery workers receive under similar legislation passed by the Council in 2021. The third bill removes all misdemeanor criminal penalties for vendors.
All of the bills received at least 35 votes, more than the two-thirds required by the 51- member City Council.
The Council argued that criminal summonses made the mostly immigrant, Black and Latino street vendors in the city vulnerable to deportation. Almost 80 percent of criminal vendor enforcement is directed at Black and Latino vendors, according to the Council.
The vendor bill would still allow for violations, fines and civil penalties to be issued to unlicensed vendors, said Shekar Krishnan, a Democrat from Queens and a sponsor of the legislation, who said Mr. Adams had “failed workers” and immigrants.
Randy Mastro, the first deputy mayor, criticized the veto override of the vendor bill after the vote. “In the guise of decriminalizing illegal vending it effectively legalizes it by providing no real penalty for doing it,” Mr. Mastro said. “That’s bad for our city and not fair to all the legal small businesses and licensed vendors, most of whom themselves are immigrants.”
Mr. Nosanchuk said the grocery delivery-related bill would increase costs for people who rely on such deliveries.
“While Mayor Adams does not take the power of a veto lightly, we stand by our decision to support our most vulnerable residents who rely on grocery delivery, including seniors, people with disabilities, and those who receive SNAP and E.B.T. benefits,” he said.
In a statement, Thomas McNeil, Sr., manager of policy and government affairs for Instacart, said the company supported the minimum hourly wage but wanted it to apply only after workers were in the process of gathering and delivering the items, not while waiting to receive an order. The legislation could increase average grocery bills by $10 per order, he said.
“The City Council has now twice ignored the voices of New Yorkers, instead doubling down on harmful legislation that could significantly increase New Yorkers’ grocery delivery bills and eliminate access to work for thousands of grocery delivery workers,” said Mr. McNeil.
Sandy Nurse, a Democratic councilwoman from Brooklyn and a primary sponsor of the grocery app legislation, said the idea that workers should not be paid while waiting to receive an assignment was ludicrous.
“If you’re on an app waiting to get a job you can’t be doing other things,” Ms. Nurse said, adding that she believed that “Instacart has built a model that is based off exploitative practices.”
Similar fears that the minimum wage for restaurant delivery workers would increase costs or hurt workers have not materialized, according to James Parrott, a senior adviser at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, who consulted with the city as it considered the changes.
“Despite Instacart’s claims, restaurant delivery workers are taking home much more now than before the pay standard, and customers are not paying more than before,” he said.
Revenue and profits from some food and grocery delivery businesses have boomed since the pandemic. Instacart revenues increased to $3.3 billion in 2024 from $1.5 billion in 2020, including $457 million in net profits last year. City officials have focused on a host of issues associated with delivery such as bicycle safety, tipping, worker pay requirements and access to bathrooms.
Delivery workers and vendors gathered on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday and cheered the veto overrides. David Dimas, an Instacart delivery worker, said a change in wages would provide a level of stability and dignity for delivery workers and their families.
“There are days when, after spending the whole day delivering food for others,” Mr. Dimas said through a translator, “I don’t even have enough to feed myself.”
Jeffery C. Mays is a Times reporter covering politics with a focus on New York City Hall.
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