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Uber Drivers and Other Gig Economy Workers Are Earning Half What They Did Five Years Ago (recode.net)
According to a new study by the JPMorgan Chase Instittue, drivers who transport people via apps (e.g. Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, Postmates) made 53 percent less in 2017 than they did in 2013. Recode reports: The average monthly payments to those who worked for a transportation app in a given month declined to $783 from $1,469. Meanwhile, people working for leasing apps -- Airbnb, Turo, Parklee and other apps that let you rent assets like your home, car or parking space -- saw their incomes from those platforms rise 69 percent to $1,736 on average.
This is happening as online gig work has become more popular, thanks in large part to the growth in the number of transportation jobs. The share of the working population that has participated in the online gig economy at any point in a year rose from less than 2 percent in 2013 to nearly 5 percent in 2018. There are a number of potential reasons why the average pay for gig economy drivers has gone down. It could be any or all of the below, according to JPMorgan: drivers on average are working fewer hours; demand hasn't increased to meet the increased number of drivers; trip prices have fallen; or platforms are paying drivers lower rates.
This is happening as online gig work has become more popular, thanks in large part to the growth in the number of transportation jobs. The share of the working population that has participated in the online gig economy at any point in a year rose from less than 2 percent in 2013 to nearly 5 percent in 2018. There are a number of potential reasons why the average pay for gig economy drivers has gone down. It could be any or all of the below, according to JPMorgan: drivers on average are working fewer hours; demand hasn't increased to meet the increased number of drivers; trip prices have fallen; or platforms are paying drivers lower rates.
The headline is VERY misleading. They are talking about MONTHLY income and NOT hourly income. So what is happening is that new Uber drivers are far more likely to be part timers, putting in a few hours of driving at the end of the day to earn some extra income.
About 80% of Uber drivers drive for less than 35 hours per week. Over 60% have another job that is their main income.
At least I can pay good, old-fashioned, cash for a taxi and not have my CC info, email, name, and other ID info in a database for eternity. Uber/Lyft/the rest of the "rideshare" techbro firms = no privacy.
Yeah, yeah, taxis have cameras, but facial recognition is still a lot harder than ID from an account "verified" with CC info. F Uber, Lyft, Via, and the rest of them.
nobody knows since the data is _only_ monthly.
No it isn't. One article written by one lazy journalist is not the only data available.
Uber has said that the reason for the decline is drivers working fewer hours. According to Uber, more than 50% of their drivers now work less than 10 hours per week.
The job market today is stronger than it was 4 years ago, and it makes no sense for workers to accept half the pay they did then for the same job. People are not that stupid, and that is NOT happening.
About 80% of Uber drivers drive for less than 35 hours per week.
I'm an Uber/Lyft driver. And another misleading statistic is the number of hours they tell us we've worked.
And that's because both companies do not count the waiting time we take to wait for rides to accept, nor the time we use to get back to a location without getting a ride request. So if the app tells me I've worked 35 hours or 45 hours this week and done my 130 rides for the week, it usually means I've actually worked roughly 50+ to 60+ hours a week. It's all very misleading.
And to some of you wondering how this is possible. Why aren't drivers quitting? Well, I'd say 99% of drivers did quit three or four years ago. Me, I am part of the new batch of replacement drivers. I've seen my income slowly get reduced overtime, but definitely not as much as the drivers did four years ago when they went through a massive price cut.