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Uber Challenges Study Suggesting Its Drivers Earn $3.37 Per Hour (reuters.com)
An MIT study using data from more than 1,100 Uber and Lyft drivers concluded they're earning a median pretax profit of just $3.37 per hour. But now Reuters reports:
Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi criticized the MIT study in a tweet on Friday as "Mathematically Incompetent Theories (at least as it pertains to ride-sharing)," and linked to a response by Uber chief economist Jonathan Hall that challenged the study's methodology. Hall's rebuttal to the study said the likely misinterpretation of a survey question and the study's "inconsistent logic" produced a wage result that was below similar studies elsewhere. He said the study used a "flawed methodology" compared with a survey that found drivers' average hour earnings were $15.68. "The earnings figures suggested in the paper are less than half the hourly earnings numbers reported in the very survey the paper derives its data from," wrote Hall.
The MIT study's lead author, Stephen Zoepf, told Reuters in an email on Saturday, "I can see how the question on revenue might have been interpreted differently by respondents" and called Hall's rebuttal thoughtful. "I'm re-running the analysis this weekend using Uber's more optimistic assumptions and should have new results and a public response acknowledging the discrepancy by Monday," he wrote.
Saturday Uber's CEO tweeted a thank-you to MIT, "for listening and revisiting this study and its findings. Right thing to do."
The MIT study's lead author, Stephen Zoepf, told Reuters in an email on Saturday, "I can see how the question on revenue might have been interpreted differently by respondents" and called Hall's rebuttal thoughtful. "I'm re-running the analysis this weekend using Uber's more optimistic assumptions and should have new results and a public response acknowledging the discrepancy by Monday," he wrote.
Saturday Uber's CEO tweeted a thank-you to MIT, "for listening and revisiting this study and its findings. Right thing to do."
I drive for Lyft sometimes, but the pay is similar. I earn anywhere between $8 and $20 an hour. Mostly it averages in the $10-12 range. (In the Portland, Oregon area.) I have only been doing it for a few months. I have talked to some guys who were doing it when ride sharing first came to the region, and they said that they were making around $800 a night on the weekends. I pull around $200 for ~6-8 hours on Saturday. Any other night I am lucky to get between $75-100.
I do not understand how people can try to make a living doing it.
I do it for a few reasons. I like to drive and talk to people. It gets me out into the real world and off of the computer. I also appreciate that I can write off car maintenance, tires and things like that. I would also be able to write off my cell phone, but my main job already pays for that.