“We urgently need new resources to implement the minimum pay rate for the broader delivery workforce,” Deputy Commissioner Elizabeth Wagoner testified at a recent Council hearing. That short-shrift started with the mayor’s executive budget, released in May, which proposed a total DCWP budget of $75.1 million (the final adopted budget decreased that amount by around $56,000). Last year was the first full year that the department implemented the original minimum pay law for restaurant app workers — and wages rose by $700 million collectively. Potential new leadershipMayoral frontrunner, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, says he will double the DCWP budget if elected. "Doubling the DCWP budget and hiring more staff will allow the department to enforce the non-compete ban, fight wage theft, prevent and enforce misclassification, and generally root out labor abuse."