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- cross-posted to:
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Lyft and Uber say they will leave Minneapolis if the mayor signs a minimum wage bill for drivers::Lyft and Uber threatened to stop doing business in Minneapolis after the city council adopted a new rule Thursday that would set a minimum wage for rideshare drivers.
Oh no! Businesses whose ‘innovation’ is doing end runs around labour law, leaving? How sad.
And whose business plan is to use VC money to undercut existing taxi services and drive them out of business so that they can increase prices to a profitable point (and beyond!).
I have little sympathy for the taxi companies. They were terrible at what they did for so long. I can still remember the last two taxi rides I had in my life.
Me stuck a 5 minute drive from work. Every cab company I call wants 40 dollars and only in cash. Why? Because it crossed a town and county line. It took 4 calls before I found one that would take plastic.
A year later going to the airport and I am fighting a migraine. No AC, cab was filthy, ads are blasting, and smelled. Hey can you turn off the advertisements? I can’t. Buddy I have a really bad headache can you please turn it off? I can’t do that. I will give you five dollars to turn it off. It goes off.
Yeah, it wasn’t like the taxi industry was all sunshine and flowers before Uber existed. I cheered them on in the fight for a while before realizing they weren’t my champion but just wanted to replace the existing taxis with their own and had to hike up prices eventually because they were losing tons of money in the meantime.
The “labor laws” you reference only exist to give taxi companies monopolies and provide worse experiences for everyone involved
You mean exist to ensure the underpaid actually get the legal minimum wage and to stop exploitive rich people from exploiting poor people?
But it isn’t like a lot of taxi companies didn’t do the same thing to their workers.
In most parts of the US, restriction of the number of taxis came from issuing a limited number of medallions. The owners of these medallions effectively became rentseekers, renting out their medallions to drivers. The system was rife with abuse.
Part of the main issue now is that a lot of small rentseekers got taken over by two big ones.
Uber drivers don’t make less money than taxi drivers. On average, they make about the same.
Taxi: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-TAXI-CAB-Driver-Salary-by-State
Uber: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-UBER-Taxi-Driver-Salary-by-State
Uber drivers aren’t “poor” lol.
Uber & Lyft drivers assume all the financial risk and responsibility for their car payment, maintenance, insurance, cleaning, health and dental insurance, etc. You’ll find that once you factor in the externalities the tech companies push into their workers, they don’t necessarily make good money at all.
You pretty much have to game the system to make any money doing it, like I did.
So do pizza delivery drivers and they make great money.
They really don’t. When I was a pizza guy about ten years ago, after fuel & maintenance I would make the equivalent of about $12 USD per hour averaged over a month of full time work.
And one big repair like your power steering pump can ruin the whole month. It’s a great way to “use up” the last of your car before you scrap it, but really not a sustainable job.
Weird because when I was a pizza guy, I made more than I did as a teacher
Well are you factoring in the costs to the automobile like they mentioned? As they say they are a hidden cost and can be quite considerable long term as delivering pizzas adds a lot of wear and tear on a vehicle. When I delivered a LOOOONNNG time ago the costs really did sneak up on me. It was a fun job, and initially I thought it paid well - till I got a couple surprises.
Holy fuck, someone as dumb as you is teaching people? Scary.
Ah yes, pizza delivery drivers are well known to be among the highest income earners. Up there with doctors, I believe.
Good time to remind everyone doctors are overpaid due to artificial scarcity, because the ADA lobbies Congress to artificially limit the number of residencies, to keep supply of doctors low
And I didn’t say pizza drivers were rich, I said they make a good living. They do.
I made about $20/hr as a delivery driver, take-home, which put me above both what I made as a teacher (roughly 14/hr) and my next 2 jobs (e-learning developer, salesperson -16/18 respectively).
Then why would the company be against paying minimum wage?
Because it’s a custom minimum wage that only their companies have to pay, set arbitrarily to make shit like taxis more competitive.
Yellow Cab fucking admitted in NYC that they only pushed the “Uber drivers make lower wages” rhetoric because they couldn’t compete, when in fact Uber drivers make what taxi drivers make.
So now Uber just contracts out taxis, and gets their money anyway
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/business/uber-new-york-taxis.html
But at least people have to pay more for rides.
How the hell does a minimum wage make taxis more competitive? That doesn’t make any sense. If uber drivers already make more than the minimum wage then a minimum wage would have no effect on that.
You should read the article, because it’s only a set minimum for those two companies, not a general min wage.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. I am in Portland and Uber & Lyft are so popular here that the cabs here mostly do medical transport for non-emergency situations. I use to be a dispatcher here for several years. All cabs did were go to various hospitals and doctor offices.
People here really, really do not like their beliefs challenged by reality
well now it feels like I didn’t really leave reddit.
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It’s weird that you think someone making more than 30-35% of the country is “poor”
You’ll forgive me for not putting much stock in your “total guess” when you believe as you do.
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A) it’s fun how I can tell you’re from a wealthy family
B) all averages are calculated the same way. That’s what “average” means. It’s literally a method of calculation.
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People are so poor nowadays that saying somebody’s from a wealthy family has become an insult.
That is poor lmao, and that’s not a good thing
Tell me you have rich parents without telling me you have rich parents.
Tell me you expect people to pretend they’re not poor in order to validate exploitative practices of a massive corporation without telling me you’re a centrist.
One parent was disabled the other made the amount listed above, I was pretty damn poor, try again
Still better than the ‘gig economy’. If making worker’s lives more precarious makes your life better, fuck your life.
The gig economy is less precarious for the people that choose it because it fits their schedule. That’s why they choose it. Jobs aren’t exactly hard to get right now - they’d do something else if they wanted to.
Also uber drivers don’t make less money than taxi drivers. On average, they make about the same.
Taxi: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-TAXI-CAB-Driver-Salary-by-State
Uber: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-UBER-Taxi-Driver-Salary-by-State
That just compares salary, what about benefits?
Not to mention employee protection/rights laws that don’t always apply to contractors
And the wear and tear they are putting on personal vehicles instead of company vehicles.
“choose” as in they all had a choice between a dependable job with benefits and a gig is a bit of an leap. Sure it’s the case for some but most certainly not all.
I’d love to see your citation that most Uber drivers are somehow forced into it, somehow, as their only employment option.
Also I’d love to hear your reasoning how, for these same people who can’t work other jobs, they’re better off without a means to earn money.
Do taxi drivers typically have to own/maintain/insure their own cars? I’ve always thought those were all paid for by the taxi company.
Usually not but if you put a dent in it you get the terrible one in the worst areas for a while as punishment. Assuming of course they don’t just cancel your shift. That is why it was important to always note the scratches. I put a bumper scratch in once and was ordered to do the inspection line up. 2 hours of sitting there not making any money. If I leave I have no job the next day. Ended up quitting that week.
No but they also don’t have to do any of the other shit drivers do, like get qualify for medallions etc.
Both jobs have their hidden costs.
There’s nothing preventing Uber, Lyft, or any other company from charging realistic rates to pay drivers a minimum wage. But if Uber or Lyft do this, their rates end up being more than traditional taxis, so the question is why
Uber and lift drivers make more than minimum wage, and make basically the same income as taxi drivers, so I’m not sure what you’re even saying here.
They cost less than taxis because they have less overhead.
If that was the case then this bill would be of no concern to them. In reality, only some drivers make more than minimum wage, not all
It’s an additional charge just for those companies, not an actual minimum wage.
Read the article.
Read the article 😑
Nothing in this article disagrees with what I’m saying
The Minneapolis City Council is trying to create a new minimum wage for drivers. Uber and Lyft drivers are not “already making” this. What are you reading?
I didn’t say they were making the custom-built minimum designed solely to impact their companies, but rather that they make over the actual minimum wage
Ok