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Leaked Docs Provide An Unprecedented Look At Income Of Uber Drivers (buzzfeed.com)
In 2013, Uber told the Wall Street Journal that a typical Uber driver takes in more than $100,000 in annual gross fares. The ride-hail platform, which has shared similar estimates many times since, says that the company's efforts toward its drivers is a pathway to a modest, more attainable American dream. Turns out, the it has been exaggerating. According to BuzzFeed News, which obtained leaked documents, drivers in some markets don't take home much more than service workers at major chains like Walmart when it comes to net pay. According to the publication, drivers in three major U.S. markets -- Denver, Detroit, and Houston -- earned less than an average of $13.25 an hour after expenses. From the report:Based on these calculations, it's possible to estimate that Uber drivers in late 2015 earned approximately $13.17 per hour after expenses in the Denver market (which includes all of Colorado), $10.75 per hour after expenses in the Houston area, and $8.77 per hour after expenses in the Detroit market, less than any earnings figure previously released by the company.
The $13.25 is a calculation by Uber, not by the journalist. The journalists re-ran some of the calculations and got slightly lower figure.
"Internal Uber calculations, provided to BuzzFeed News by Uber, based on data spanning more than a million rides and covering thousands of drivers in three major U.S. markets — Denver, Detroit, and Houston — suggest that drivers in each of the three markets overall earned less than an average of $13.25 an hour after expenses."
Assuming Uber are not lying about the $13.25, that would still mean that if you worked 40 hours a week, every week of the year, you'd make $27,560 a year.
Whether this is a good or bad depends on how much ordinary taxi drivers make for a similar amount of work.
Uber has frequently talked about how much a driver's gross income will be as a way of encouraging people to join up, which is a nice bit of marketing, and standard practice for companies like Uber.
Paul Leader
Actually, you missed something and at @$100,000 it breaks down as follows assuming no state income tax.
Gross @ $100,000
Federal Taxes = $18,184
Social security = $12,400
Medicare = 2,900
25% in expenses == $25,000
Leaves $41,516 or a profit of $798 a week, If the state has an income tax it changes those calculations some.
as a 1099 self employed you are responsible for all of the above.
If you start out talking about "100k in Gross Fares" then reveal that number was wrong,
One problem is that this 100k figure was quoted in 2013 (and I assume it only covered year 2012 for a Uber driver, to make the company look as good as possible).
We're now in 2016, and the article compares the 2013 (2012 year) to a calculation done for the 2015 year. The problem is that Uber has lowered its base rate since that quote in 2013, flooded the market with new drivers since then, added UberPool in some regions with an even lower base rate (and increased risks for drivers who don't get the per person safety fee that Uber collects despite the fact that drivers make that many more stops when pooling), and in addition to that, Uber has increased the commission percentage it took from drivers. In other words, Uber drivers that used to drive around that 2012 period used to make a lot more and are super upset at the company (and for good reasons).
That being said, I have no reason to believe that Uber lied to the Wall Street Journal in 2013, and to imply that Uber did, is just lazy click-bait journalism. And I really do mean lazy. It's not like there is a shortage of Uber drivers that you can interview (all Uber drivers know this stuff, even the new ones). And that so-called Buzzfeed reporter could have just called an Uber driver to get a reaction on that story, or just plainly have done a google search on ridesharing bulletin boards, where all of this is talked about in thousands of bulletin threads. But that writer did no such thing, neither did her Buzzfeed News Data Editor listed next to her byline, which brings me to another point.
Buzzfeed staff are probably paid very little to nothing at all (one would surmise). If paid something, they're probably paid on the amount of controversy and clicks they can generate, not on the amount of time the spent researching the topic. There is obviously little to no quality control done on each article and no double-checking of any kind. And Buzzfeed readers are actually dumber for having read Buzzfeed than not having read it.
How many "jobs" let you decide you don't feel like working this week with no consequences?
UPS is one
When I worked as a loader (in the local Teamsters union) I got 100% medical and dental benefits, got $15/hour and the official policy was that if you don't show up WITHOUT CALLING IN for 4 days in a row, that was grounds for termination (it was *grounds* for termination... but I rarely, if ever, saw anyone fired)
I personally saw, several times, people not call in and not show up for a week at a time. Then they would show up when they needed money.
Because of the benefits and short hours (no full time employment and anything over 4 hours in a single shift is overtime, which was almost never authorized) there were a lot of people who had their own businesses during the day and just use UPS for the benefits.
I was going to school at the time and UPS also kicked in a few thousand per semester for that.... I always recommend UPS to people... it amazes me how many people turn their nose up at it.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.