Grocery Workers at Center of Latest NYC Wage Debate

Richard Reibstein, a partner with Troutman Pepper Locke and author of the Independent Contractor Misclassification & Compliance blog, was quoted in the September 8, 2025 Law360 article, “Grocery Workers at Center of Latest NYC Wage Debate.”

The grocery delivery legislation, “like the restaurant delivery law, presupposes that these individuals are validly classified as independent contractors,” said Richard Reibstein of management-side firm Troutman Pepper Locke LLP.

“The companies that provide grocery store deliveries, like those that provide restaurant deliveries, have succeeded in large measure in getting legislators to acknowledge that it is better to try to improve the lot of these individuals by increasing their compensation, rather than by litigating their classification,” he said.

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Reibstein said adding some worker protections without a wholesale reclassification of workers as employees is beneficial to businesses, but businesses do not always see it that way.

“Many of the businesses that engage these folks as independent contractors will argue that the law’s gone too far and strikes a balance that is more in favor of worker interests than business interests,” he said. “Mayor Adams’ veto of this law is regarded by many as an effort to support those businesses who would generally oppose this legislation as being tilted in favor of the workers.”

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Reibstein said, “Plaintiffs class action lawyers continue to bring these types of independent contractor misclassification lawsuits despite the fact that legislators are taking a far more realistic approach and doing something that actually benefits, meaningfully, these types of workers.”