New York’s government disclosed an eye-popping number this week: The average customer tip on the food delivery apps DoorDash and Uber Eats is 76 cents in the city, compared to $3.66 two years ago.
Everyone agrees why tips dried up — not because we’re tired of tipping. It’s largely because those two companies changed the in-app tip feature to make New Yorkers less likely to leave a gratuity.
The apps moved the tip option from just before customers place an order to after. Average tipping amounts immediately plummeted, the city says. It’s proof that app design influences our behavior.
What’s hotly disputed, though, is whether the tip decline is a healthy sign for workers, as the companies say, or a result of delivery couriers being deprived of a collective $550 million in income, as the new administration of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani says.
While this tipping fracas is unique to New York, it also reveals two broader realities about app-based convenience services such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart.
First, people are confused and angry about tipping, and the delivery app boom makes it worse. (Keep reading for food delivery tipping suggestions from a worker advocate.)
Second, 15 years after app-based “gig work” emerged as an alternative to conventional employment, there remains profound disagreement about whether these are good jobs and how to make them better.
Those struggles raise questions about whether Americans and our political leaders are prepared to address the risks of artificial intelligence wiping out jobs or cratering incomes.
Regulating gig work
If a restaurant server’s tips are low, the restaurant must pay the worker more until she reaches the legally mandated minimum wage.
But people who work for apps such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart are considered independent contractors rather than employees. Minimum wage laws don’t typically apply to them.
The workers often say that as a result, their pay is unpredictable and highly dependent on tips, which can comprise half or more of app workers’ pay. Some states and cities have tried forms of pay guarantees for app workers.
Starting in December 2023, New York mandated a minimum hourly wage for couriers of six food delivery apps. DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub were by far the largest.
App companies warned that the wage mandate would hurt workers, raise prices for consumers and drive restaurants out of business. That was true on the margins, but largely the law worked as intended without ruining what people like about food delivery.
Average hourly pay for delivery couriers of the six apps more than doubled, from $11 in the spring of 2023 to $24 in spring 2025, New York data show. Tips have declined significantly, but the higher total pay is now mostly coming from the app companies’ pockets rather than tips.
This average hourly pay isn’t necessarily comparable to what a restaurant cook or a Starbucks barista makes. Employers of those conventional hourly workers may pay the costs of benefits, job-related expenses and worker’s compensation. Delivery app workers typically must pay those expenses out of their own wages.
Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project, a labor advocacy group, said workers still need tips. She criticized DoorDash and Uber Eats for moving the in-app tipping option.
The city says that the average customer tip on apps such as Grubhub that didn’t move the in-app tipping option in late 2023 is $2.17 compared to the 76-cent average for DoorDash and Uber Eats.
DoorDash and Uber Eats say the city suggested they move or remove the in-app tipping option, essentially to avoid scaring off customers facing higher delivery fees from the minimum wage law. DoorDash and Uber Eats now say that the city wanted workers to rely less on tips, it worked and New York is blaming them for a change the city itself suggested.
The two companies sued to stop a looming mandate to put the in-app tipping option back where it was, at the moment New Yorkers place an order.
Again, this dispute isn’t about one city. It shows the difficulties in making food deliveries fair for everyone involved — restaurants selling you meals, delivery workers, app companies and diners.
What workers want you to know about tips
An oddity of tipping for many app-based delivery services is that you’re often asked for a gratuity when you place an order. It’s like tipping at a restaurant just as you sit down for dinner rather than after the meal.
This breaks American norms of tipping as a reward for a job well done. But fairly or unfairly, app companies built their system around tips.
Tips may determine whether your order is assigned a delivery courier right away or not, and tips can make or break an app worker’s paycheck.
I asked Guallpa for a road map on how food delivery workers would like us to tip. She said:
• Consider tipping 10 to 20 percent of your order amount. And she suggested tipping more during bad weather or if you’re placing a large order.
• If you can, opt for Grubhub over DoorDash or Uber Eats. Guallpa said Grubhub tends to treat workers better than other food delivery apps. (DoorDash’s comment didn’t address the criticism. Uber Eats didn’t comment.)
• Consider tipping both in the app and in cash at the door if you’re happy with the service. Guallpa also said that some delivery couriers suspect the app companies don’t pay them all the in-app tips they earn. (Wage theft is a common claim among hourly workers, and delivery apps have previously been forced to reform over tip-stealing allegations.)
If you tip in the app, she said that couriers tend to appreciate it when customers show them the amount, at the door or with a texted screenshot, for the worker’s records.
The post What a 76-cent average tip reveals about gig work in America appeared first on Washington Post.
