NYC Votes To Set Minimum Pay For Uber, Lyft Drivers (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Tuesday, New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to set a minimum pay rate for Uber, Lyft, and other on-demand ride-hailing drivers. The new rate will be set at $17.22 after expenses, or $26.51 per hour gross. New York is believed to be the first city in the nation to implement such a pay floor. Four months ago, the Big Apple also imposed a cap on the number of such vehicles in the city. The Independent Drivers Guild, a local affiliate of the Machinists Union, advocated for the change. Meanwhile, Uber has already put out a statement saying that increased driver earnings "will lead to higher than necessary fare increases" and that the new rules do not adequately take into account "incentives or bonuses forcing companies to raise rates even higher." "Today we brought desperately needed relief to 80,000 working families. All workers deserve the protection of a fair, livable wage and we are proud to be setting the new bar for contractor workers' rights in America," Jim Conigliaro, Jr., founder of the Independent Drivers Guild, said in a statement.

Comments

Higher than necessary pay incnreases?

[Bradmont]

In other words, "paying our workers a reasonable wage is not necessary."

Re:Higher than necessary pay incnreases?

[omnichad]

Limos don't follow taxi laws either. Calling it "ride sharing" doesn't help their case, but being a private hire vehicle not hailed from the street makes quite a bit of difference with the way most of the laws are written.

Re:NY Uber and Lyft drivers

[torkus]

I don't think you live in NYC...

$35k/yr definitely isn't livable in NYC, but at the same time is totally is. It takes a different approach and many people in NYC accept that (or get NYCHA housing and live for almost free).

The $17/hr minimum is considerably (+24%) higher than the NYC minimum wage of $13/hr set about a year ago.Guaranteeing that wage to someone working a highly flexible, self-directed job with effectively no boss is actually ... strange. Well, until you realize the taxi commission is working to destroy uber in NYC and get their control back.