Mamdani's biggest promises are now this millennial's day job

Mamdani insider Sam Levine oversees all workers and consumers in New York City.

Corrie Aune for BI

Sam Levine can't stand a ripoff.

He's New York City's millennial commissioner of Consumer and Worker Protection. The former lawyer — who worked under Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission — said he didn't hesitate to file a complaint with the department this spring when CVS sent him an expired coupon. And he thinks it's ludicrous that his halal guy charged him more than $20 for his post-Knicks victory meal.

"I want people to move away from a sense of resignation that this is just the economy we're stuck with," he told me, "And move toward a more hopeful view that we can fight back."

"You have different protections for workers than you do for consumers," Levine told me. "But at the end of the day, we're talking about people."

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Levine has a daunting job. He oversees an agency responsible for enforcing fair business practices across the five boroughs, home to 8.5 million people. His department is one of the smallest in the NYC government, with about 400 employees and a stretched-thin budget. For comparison, the city's housing authority employs about 12,500.

The department's mission is central to Mamdani's affordability agenda. DCWP is one of City Hall's main arms taking on corporate malfeasance and enforcing worker protection policies. Local outlet City&State published a story in January with the headline "Why you keep seeing Mamdani's consumer protection commissioner everywhere." Cross-legged on his lower Manhattan office couch, Levine told me that, historically, his department hasn't been a major headline-maker. He's determined to change that.

That June evening, I shadowed Levine at an event celebrating fashion workers and addressing the challenges models face because of AI and financial insecurity. As soon as we walked in, the commissioner was surrounded by a gaggle of attendees, casually chatting over hors d'oeuvres and barely-chilled beer about everything from the weather to fair wages. He appeared to have the same combination of media training and everyman relatability that's become a trademark of his boss.

Levine gave an address at a Manhattan event celebrating fashion workers. Between keynotes, commencements, and events, he gives at least one speech a week.

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Of course, not everyone is a fan. Business Insider reached out to two dozen companies and trade associations targeted by Levine's actions — including delivery apps, hotels, restaurants, retailers, auto dealers, and law firms. While most didn't reply, some said they're concerned that the city's consumer-focused approach will affect their bottom line. And white-shoe law firms are already advising clients to tread carefully when it comes to NYC regulations.

"I think people are getting frustrated at every turn and maybe feeling like the days of being actually able to speak to a human or pay a standard price are over," Levine said. "One message I really want people to know: This is not inevitable."

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Levine's phone rang late one December evening as he and his partner were watching TV in their apartment. It was an unknown number. He missed it. A few minutes later, the lockscreen glowed with a "terrifying" text.

"Hey, this is Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Can you please give me a call?" Levine was being offered a job.

Later that week, he was announced as DCWP commissioner in an NFL draft-style Instagram post.

"I have been shaped over the years — whether it's New York City or Chicago or Washington — by the notion that government needs to be a muscular champion for working people," Levine said.

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Prior to the role, Levine earned his law degree at Harvard, worked as an attorney in Illinois, served as director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection in Washington, DC, and had a stint in academia at Berkeley. Khan — his former boss and a chair on the Mamdani transition team — pitched him on a role in the mayor's cabinet.

Levine's office has since taken action to ban hidden hotel fees, stop excessive credit card holds, crack down on delivery app exploitation, promote free tax filing, resolve Fair Work Week violations, and reduce subscription traps for New Yorkers. Since Levine entered office, the department said it has filed major lawsuits over worker and consumer rights violations, sent more than 137,000 notices to businesses for noncompliance with NYC law, and secured over $10 million in restitution, some of which was for delivery and fast food workers who courts found were denied PTO or predictable shifts by their employers. This work builds on Fair Work Week laws and gig worker protection efforts that began before the Mamdani administration.

Much of Levine's work at DCWP is central to Mamdani's affordability agenda.

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Beyond policy, Levine has adopted Mamdani's social media-forward communications strategy — one that prioritizes bite-sized Instagram videos and unscripted livestreams alongside traditional news coverage.

Levine famously joined Mamdani for a live Taco Bell and Dunkin' lunch, during which the two celebrated a $1.8 million win for retail and food workers following claims the companies violated local scheduling laws. At the Prospect Park Zoo's red panda exhibit, Levine and the mayor announced a settlement requiring delivery app HungryPanda to pay over $875,000 for withholding minimum pay from employees, and the pair spent a recent night distributing Workers' Bill of Rights pamphlets at Brooklyn restaurants. On July 10, Levine and Mamdani were joined by Khan to announce the administration's latest click-to-cancel rules in an East Village gym — the podium set up between a row of treadmills.

Lorelei Salas, who served as Bill de Blasio's DCWP commissioner, told me that she gives Levine "an A+" for both his policy and outreach efforts. She feels he is "using every tool at his disposal," even if that means doing things differently than when she stepped into the role a decade ago. "Quick hits, quick videos: That's what's grabbing people's attention these days," she said. "It's really great to see that DCWP is actually embracing that way of communicating with New Yorkers, informing them of their rights."

"How do you reach fast food workers? It's not with a press release." Levine said. "You have to reach people where they are."

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"What I am proudest of is how we've made ourselves a visible presence in New York," Levine said. As he sees it, greater visibility would lead to more complaints, more 311 calls, and greater compliance among businesses. "Even though we're a small agency, we are not afraid to take on big players."

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In Levine's office, there's a vintage gold scale of justice, a poster for the "Rental Ripoff" hearings, and a framed copy of the New York Post cover that featured his and Mamdani's Taco Bell Crunchwrap feast. It reads "Commie and Get It!"

The headline — which Levine says he found funny — hits on a key part of the criticism the mayor and his cabinet have heard from New Yorkers: that their affordability promises will come at the expense of Wall Street, discourage Big Tech investment, or cause an eventual exodus of the ultrawealthy.

Levine has appeared alongside Mamdani at many public events focused on rental ripoffs, subscription traps, Fair Work Week laws, and more.

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The commissioner has an ambitious agenda, and Mamdani recently pledged another $4.3 million to the department to "expand capacity for DCWP," with plans to grow that additional funding to $18 million annually in fiscal year 2029. The department's fiscal year 2027 budget is approximately $78.5 million. Plenty of affordability issues, like minimum wage laws and NYC's steep cost of living, are also outside Levine's jurisdiction.

Levine said his strategy is centered on holding corporations accountable for consumer junk fees, predatory debt collection, worker mistreatment, profiteering off mom-and-pop shops, and more.

"We are seeing national law firms put out warnings that big, blue-chip companies need to be paying attention to New York City law because we have an enforcement agency like DCWP ready to enforce these laws aggressively," he told me.

Even on a day off, Levine said he spends a few hours working. Maybe he'll attend a friend's birthday party or catch up on laundry, too.

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Business Insider found examples of this at Big Law firms like Gibson Dunn and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Joe Doherty — who is chief legal officer for the Self Storage Association, a trade group that supports companies like Extra Space and U-Haul — said he's advising the companies he works with to closely read local regulations and licensing laws.

The department sued Extra Space in February, alleging predatory pricing practices that harm consumers, and the case was settled for $1.7 million on July 9.

A company spokesperson said they "disagree with the claims being made," though they can't comment on the legal process. Doherty told me that DCWP's online subscription regulations could leave storage providers in a position where customers can abandon a unit without removing their property. "If (the department) were more open to speaking to our industry, they'd have an opportunity to understand why these don't work for us," he said.

In Levine's view, it's not just big-name companies that should be paying attention. The department recently announced an action against a small Bronx auto dealer for "overcharging" customers with "bait-and-switch" pricing.

Ligia Guallpa described her work with Levine as a "partnership." She's the executive director of the Workers' Justice Project, an organization that represents cleaners, construction workers, and delivery drivers in NYC. She mentioned the $1 million government-funded Deliverista Hub, a new space for delivery workers to shelter from the weather and access support services, as an example of how the administration is "committed to moving resources as quickly as possible to deliver on every promise for workers." The commissioner visited the lower Manhattan hub in mid-June to speak with workers.

Levine emphasized that he's a worker and consumer himself. His first job was bagging food at a grocery store.

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Now, Levine is preparing for the future. "I want to scale up," he said. His goal "isn't just to address the ways people are being nickel-and-dimed today, it's to figure out what the emerging challenges are and get ahead of them."

That starts with big goals: Going after companies that use AI and personal data surveillance to set gig worker wages or grocery prices. And the little things: like reporting convenience giant CVS for distributing an expired coupon.

After all, Levine is a consumer with gripes, too.

"Oh my God," he said, throwing his head back with a laugh. "I have so many."

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