Another Zohran Mamdani 'Affordability' Scam: Make Takeout Cost More, Then Declare Victory

Zohran Mamdani called it an affordability win, but New Yorkers ordering takeout paid for it.

At a Wednesday press conference, the New York City mayor touted a city report showing delivery workers collected an additional $104 million in tips over six months. Customers supplied every dollar.

Mamdani credited city rules that require apps to show a tip option before checkout, including a selectable 10 percent tip. He also claimed Uber Eats and DoorDash hid their tip buttons and set default tips below 10 percent, causing delivery-worker tips to fall 79 percent. Then he took credit for forcing the companies to change their apps.

Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%.

In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we've put $104 million back in delivery workers' pockets.

This is…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) July 29, 2026

Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%.
In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we've put $104 million back in delivery workers' pockets.
This is only the beginning.

Customers saw the prompt sooner, tipped more, and paid higher bills. The editor of RRH Elections, Izengabe, quickly pointed out the problem with calling that an affordability win:

Is Zohran Mamdani really bragging about making Uber Eats & DoorDash more expensive for New Yorkers? I guess his "affordability" agenda doesn't extend to New Yorkers who order in take out. https://t.co/zXBRuBQCLP
— Izengabe (@Izengabe_) July 29, 2026

Mamdani's claim that the city "put $104 million back" skips over who paid it. City Hall did not recover the money from either company. According to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, average tips nearly doubled from $1.18 to $2.29 per delivery. That is an extra $1.11 per order paid by customers. The department projects the increase will amount to a $2,287 annual raise for each of the city's roughly 70,000 app-based delivery workers.

The rules took effect January 26, weeks after Mamdani entered City Hall. The legislation, Local Laws 107 and 108, passed under former Mayor Eric Adams, who let it become law without signing it. It followed an earlier mandate setting a minimum pay rate of $22.13 per hour for app-based delivery workers.

Uber Eats and DoorDash moved their tip options to post-delivery screens after the city began enforcing the minimum-pay standard in December 2023. City officials accused the companies of making it intentionally difficult to tip, estimating that the design changes cost workers approximately $550 million.

The new law has not restored tipping to its previous level, the city's latest report acknowledges. The current average of $2.29 per delivery remains well below the $3.66 average recorded in November 2023, before Uber Eats and DoorDash redesigned their apps.

What in the Actual? Mamdani Doxxes NYC’s Wealthy by Publishing Their Names and Addresses

DoorDash and Uber sued to block the new tipping rules. A federal judge rejected their request for an injunction in January, finding that the companies had not shown the 10 percent tipping option violated their First Amendment rights.

DoorDash warned that mandatory pre-checkout tip prompts would pressure customers already dealing with rising prices and "tipping fatigue.” The city dismissed the concern, but its report does not show whether some customers absorbed the higher cost while others canceled orders.

The city says customers are placing approximately 3.3 million delivery orders each week, about 700,000 more than in December 2023. That predates the January tipping law by more than two years and marks the start of the earlier minimum-pay mandate. The report does not compare order volume immediately before and after the tipping rule took effect, so the city's numbers do not show whether this particular mandate cost restaurants any orders.

Mamdani still presented the increase as money recovered from corporations.

“The days of City Hall accepting corporate abuse as the cost of doing business here in New York City are over.”

Delivery workers are getting larger tips. That money was a city-engineered shakedown of one group of working New Yorkers to benefit another. Uber Eats and DoorDash did not pay a dime of Mamdani's $104 million affordability victory. New Yorkers ordering dinner did, including the working people he says he represents.

Mamdani ended his post with, "This is only the beginning." New Yorkers picking up the delivery tab may not find that reassuring.

Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.

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