New York City’s groundbreaking $131.5 million settlement with DoorDash is the largest resolution of its kind in city history. It involved more than 260,000 workers who were paid late or, in some cases, were not paid at all.

The sheer scale raises an urgent question that deserves far more attention. If underpayments happened where DoorDash knew regulators were watching, what might be happening to gig workers in places where oversight is weaker or nonexistent?

New York City and Seattle are the only two cities that set a specific minimum wage for DoorDash workers and other gig delivery workers. New York City passed its law in 2023, and the measure survived a legal challenge from DoorDash and its peers.

The city agency responsible for enforcing the statute began implementing it immediately. Officials partnered with Los Deliveristas Unidos, the worker organization that had pushed for the pay floor.

That work began before 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” and warned DoorDash and other companies by name.

Against that backdrop, the settlement is striking not merely because of the money involved, but because DoorDash knew its conduct was under scrutiny. The company says the payment mistakes were unintentional, declaring, “Simply put, we screwed up.”

That explanation is difficult to square with the company’s considerable technological capabilities. DoorDash can coordinate deliveries of restaurant meals, laptops and Timberland boots, yet more than 260,000 workers were still caught in payment failures.

The settlement also belongs within a broader pattern involving worker misclassification, wage theft, underfunded enforcement agencies and increasing action by some states and cities. The coming midterm elections offer state and local candidates an opportunity to move beyond applause lines about the dignity of work.

The classification issue is central to how DoorDash operates. Although state and federal minimum wage laws exist, DoorDash treats its workers as “independent contractors,” while workplace protections generally apply only to employees.

Under the company’s position, each delivery worker is supposedly operating an entirely independent small business. That convenient arrangement allows businesses to avoid employer obligations, and the model has spread into restaurants, warehouses and even nursing.

The problem extends beyond gig delivery companies. San Diego County recently sued five national sushi companies for allegedly underpaying and misclassifying sushi chefs working in neighborhood supermarkets.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office also recovered almost $1.5 million from a Dunkin Donuts franchisee that used a staffing agency to hire 100 “independent contractors” across more than 20 locations. Those workers managed stores, made coffee and made the donuts.

Even workers who are formally treated as employees can see their rights violated with alarming frequency. A 2014 estimate from the Economic Policy Institute placed wage theft at $50 billion annually, more than other forms of theft.

The Cleveland Federal Reserve reported last month that workers experiencing wage theft lose about $95 each week, or almost $5,000 per year. For a struggling household, that money could cover groceries or months of rent.

Enforcement has not kept pace with the scale of the problem. Federal agencies have been deprived of resources for decades, and low staffing has translated into weak enforcement.

During the first year of the current Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Labor’s pursuit of wage and hour enforcement cases declined by 97%. That collapse makes action from states and cities even more essential.

The past decade has brought new worker protection laws in many states, along with greater involvement by local governments, state attorney general offices and district attorneys. Yet that momentum remains concentrated in blue jurisdictions, and even many of those efforts lack enough resources to deter violations.

The midterms will put congressional seats, dozens of governorships, attorney general offices and countless local positions before voters. Candidates at every level should explain what concrete powers they will use to improve the lives of working people.

DoorDash workers and all other workers deserve to be paid fully and on time. If workers at one company in one city were owed $115 million, the unanswered question is how much remains unpaid everywhere else.