If you drove for Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Grubhub, Amazon Flex, or another rideshare or delivery app in New Jersey, you may be owed unpaid wages and vehicle costs. Find out in about two minutes. You pay nothing unless we recover money for you.
Here is what New Jersey, California, and the law itself say about how rideshare and delivery drivers have been treated. Each figure links to its source.
Paid by Lyft to New Jersey after a state audit found it had misclassified more than 100,000 drivers as independent contractors.
That money went to state benefit funds. It did not resolve any driver's own claim for unpaid wages.
Agreed to by Lyft to settle California's driver misclassification case, which California's Attorney General called the largest in that state's history.
Covers California drivers only. New Jersey drivers bring their own claims.
Under New Jersey's ABC test, a worker paid for services is presumed to be an employee. The company must prove all three prongs to say otherwise.
New Jersey's ABC test rules took effect on October 1, 2026.
How far back New Jersey's wage laws generally let a worker reach, measured from the day a claim is filed.
The window moves forward every month, so the oldest months can drop off.
New Jersey's Wage Theft Act allows liquidated damages of up to 200 percent of the wages owed, on top of the wages themselves.
Every case depends on its facts, and companies can raise defenses.
The IRS business mileage rate as of July 1, 2026. It is the federal benchmark for what it costs to own and run a vehicle.
Drivers pay those costs themselves. Employees generally don't.
Say you gross $20 in an hour and drive 20 miles to earn it. At the IRS rate of 76 cents a mile, your car costs $15.20 of that hour. That leaves $4.80, well under New Jersey's $15.92 minimum wage.
Move the sliders to match a typical hour on the apps.
This is your net pay, not what you may be owed. In our opinion, a New Jersey claim may seek reimbursement for every work mile at the IRS rate, on top of your wages, along with other damages the law allows.
Check if I qualifyAn illustration of net pay only. It is not a calculation of damages or of any claim, which depend on your hours, miles, deductions, and other facts. The 76¢ rate is the IRS business rate effective July 1, 2026.
The company has to prove all three. If it can't prove even one, you are an employee under New Jersey's wage laws.
The app sets the fares. It tracks your location, rates your performance, and can switch you off without a conversation.
A rideshare company sells rides. You give the rides. It is hard to call that work outside the company's usual business.
You can't set your price, keep your own customers, or take them with you if the app shuts you off. That is not an independent business.
In our opinion, many New Jersey drivers have a strong argument on all three prongs. Our blog article walks through the 2026 rules prong by prong.
Read our ABC test articleAbout two minutes on your phone. No paperwork.
If you qualify, you'll see it on the spot.
Read your representation agreement in plain English and sign when you're ready. We build and file your claim. You pay nothing unless we recover for you.
No surprises. Four screens, then you're done.
The apps wrote a clause into their driver contracts: no lawsuits, no class actions. Disputes go to private, individual arbitration. They assumed that would end the conversation.
Instead, that's where our work starts. We prepare and file claims one driver at a time, in the exact forum the companies chose, with a neutral decision-maker.
And New Jersey drivers are in an especially strong spot: New Jersey law starts from the assumption that a worker is an employee, and it's the company's job to prove otherwise.
Swartz Swidler, LLC is an employment law firm in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Our firm represents thousands of rideshare and delivery drivers who worked in New Jersey.
Justin is admitted to the Supreme Courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He writes the articles on our blog.
Matt represents workers in wage and hour cases and in mediation and arbitration. He is admitted to the Supreme Courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and to the U.S. District Courts for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Still have a question? Email rideshare@swartz-legal.com or call 856-513-8050.
Nothing up front, ever. We work on contingency, so if we don't recover money for you, you pay absolutely nothing: no attorney fee, and we never ask you to repay costs. Everything is written out in an agreement you read and approve before we file anything.
No. It is illegal to retaliate against a driver for filing a claim against the app. And if a company does retaliate, our firm is fully prepared to bring the full weight of the legal process against it for having done so.
A private version of court with a neutral decision-maker, and it's the process the apps themselves put in their driver contracts. Claims are individual, one driver at a time, not a class action.
Many months, sometimes longer than anyone wants. We strive to resolve every claim within two years, and many take less time than that. No outcome or timeline is ever guaranteed.
Yes. We represent hundreds of drivers who are still on the apps, while their claim is active and even after it's resolved. A claim is about pay you already earned, so pursuing it doesn't require you to stop driving. One note: legal deadlines (statutes of limitation) apply, so the sooner you check, the better.
Right now we're reviewing claims for drivers who worked in New Jersey at any time since 2021. If you drove in NJ but live somewhere else, that can still count: what matters is where you worked, not where you sleep. Outside NJ entirely? Follow our channels. These fights move state by state, and things change.
No. The survey is just questions. If we move forward together, we'll tell you exactly what's useful and how to get it, most of it straight from your driver app history.
The apps count on you never asking the question. Ask the question.
Check if I qualify
October 11, 2026
July 15, 2026
July 17, 2026