Democratic socialist Councilmember Tiffany Cabán introduced the measure, which has received support from Mamdani and organized labor, including the Teamsters.
Supporters frame the legislation as a worker-protection measure aimed at ending what the Mamdani administration describes as “exploitative subcontracting.”
Amazon sees something very different: a direct threat to the small delivery companies and thousands of workers who have built their livelihoods around the existing model.
Amazon Warns of Higher Costs and Slower Deliveries
Amazon commissioned consulting firm AKRF to examine what could happen if delivery facilities were forced to relocate outside New York City under the proposed rules.
The findings paint an expensive picture.
According to the analysis cited by Amazon, relocating the city’s delivery infrastructure could increase per-package costs by as much as 267 percent while reducing service levels by between 10 and 21 percent.
The study also estimated that the resulting costs could ultimately amount to roughly $664 annually for the average New York City household.
Amazon says the consequences could extend well beyond customers waiting longer for packages.
“As written, this legislation would put more than 40 [delivery service partners] and their 5,000-plus employees at risk,” Amazon told Fox News Digital, “while likely resulting in slower, more expensive delivery for millions of New York City customers.”
Those delivery partners aren’t merely anonymous corporate subcontractors.
According to figures highlighted in the debate, roughly one-quarter of Amazon’s New York delivery partners are owned by black or Hispanic entrepreneurs. About 10 percent are veteran-owned, while another 10 percent are reportedly operated by former Amazon delivery workers who eventually became business owners themselves.
That complicates the political narrative surrounding the legislation.
Small Business Owners Push Back
Christine Chan, owner of Harlem-based Highgate Logistics, is among the business operators warning lawmakers about what could happen.
Her company employs approximately 175 workers who deliver around 5,000 packages each day using cargo bikes. Starting wages are reportedly $20 per hour.
Chan is skeptical that eliminating Amazon’s current delivery partners would automatically translate into direct Amazon jobs for everyone currently employed by those businesses.
“You’re betting that Amazon is going to employ these people directly.”
“I’ll take the other side of that bet,” she added.
Rudy Cazares, who operates delivery businesses working with Amazon and FedEx across New York City’s five boroughs, has also pushed back against portraying the dispute simply as workers versus giant corporations.
“It’s very easy to say it’s workers against big corporations,” Cazares said.
The economic analysis commissioned by Amazon found that approximately 83 percent of workers at last-mile facilities live outside Manhattan, while roughly 80 percent are minorities.
That raises an uncomfortable question for City Hall: could legislation promoted as a protection for working-class New Yorkers wind up eliminating some of the very jobs it claims to safeguard?
Seattle Offers a Warning
Critics are also pointing west to Seattle, where aggressive regulations targeting app-based delivery work produced significant changes in consumer behavior.
After Seattle implemented a roughly $26-per-hour minimum compensation standard for delivery drivers, companies including DoorDash and Uber Eats responded by imposing additional customer fees.
Orders subsequently declined.
DoorDash reported approximately 1.7 million fewer orders in Seattle following implementation of the policy, as consumers confronted significantly higher costs for delivery.
The controversy eventually became serious enough that former Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson acknowledged that lawmakers needed to revisit the policy.
“We created a problem and it’s our responsibility to fix it.”
New York’s proposal is not identical to Seattle’s law, but opponents argue the economic lesson is relevant: lawmakers cannot substantially increase the cost of providing a service and simply assume businesses and customers will absorb the difference without changing their behavior.
Amazon Prepares for a Political Fight
Amazon isn’t limiting its response to public statements.
The company has reportedly committed $5 million to the Five Borough Jobs Campaign opposing the proposal, representing an unusually large lobbying effort for the company in New York.
More significantly, Amazon is reportedly examining whether delivery operations could be shifted into surrounding areas including New Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester County if the legislation becomes economically unworkable.
Such a move could have consequences far beyond Amazon’s balance sheet.
Independent delivery companies could lose contracts. Thousands of workers could see their jobs disrupted. Customers could face longer delivery routes and higher prices.
And New York City could once again find itself confronting an old problem: politicians passing expensive mandates while assuming major employers have nowhere else to go.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo summarized that concern bluntly:
“You keep taxing businesses and wealthy people in New York City, there will be nobody left.”
For Mamdani and his progressive allies, the Delivery Protection Act represents an opportunity to expand labor protections and weaken a subcontracting system they believe gives corporations too much power.
For Amazon, independent delivery operators, and critics of the mayor’s economic agenda, it represents something else entirely: another costly government mandate that could punish the businesses and workers City Hall says it wants to help.
The Teamsters may emerge with considerably more leverage if the legislation becomes law.
Whether New York City’s delivery workers and consumers come out ahead is another question.
And if Amazon decides it is easier to deliver into New York City than to operate inside it, Mamdani could discover that businesses don’t need City Hall’s permission to vote with their feet.
