Minimum Pay Rules For NYC Uber Drivers Get Approval

NEW YORK — New York City's taxi regulators approved the nation's first pay floor for Uber drivers on Tuesday. Rules passed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission set a minimum pay formula for the city's major ride-hailing services that officials say will boost drivers' annual earnings by thousands of dollars.

"New York City is the first city globally to recognize that the tens of thousands of men and women who are responsible for providing increasingly popular rides that begin with the touch of a screen deserve to make a livable wage and protection against companies from unilaterally reducing it," TLC Chair Meera Joshi said in a statement.

The rules, expected to be in effect in mid-January, establish a formula that will determine how much the city's four high-volume ride-hailing apps — Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno — are required to pay drivers for each trip.

The formula factors in the length of the trip in miles and minutes as well as a "utilization rate," a measure of how much time drivers spend actually carrying passengers. It also includes a bonus for shared rides.

The TLC says drivers will be guaranteed to make the equivalent of $27.86 an hour, or $17.22 after expenses. That equates to a $15-per-hour minimum wage for independent contractors, which app-based drivers are generally considered.

Some 96 percent of drivers working for the four biggest companies — who previously had no earnings protections — will get a raise of nearly $10,000 a year, the commission says.

A pay floor for the booming ride-hailing industry was proposed in a TLC-commissioned report published in July, which said about 85 percent of drivers earn less than the impending minimum. The new rules were mandated by a package of City Council legislation signed into law in August, which also included a first-in-the-nation freeze on most new for-hire vehicles.

The final rules were slightly different from an earlier proposal that drew fire in October from drivers groups, who said the TLC had underestimated driver expenses.

But advocates praised the measure Tuesday as a major victory that will protect app-based drivers working for massive corporations. Eight professional drivers have died by suicide since November 2017, some under the weight of crushing debt and industry pressure.

"Today we brought desperately needed relief to 80,000 working families," said Jim Conigliaro, Jr., the founder of the Independent Drivers Guild, a group representing drivers for the four major ride-hailing apps. "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."

Uber, though, argues the rules will hike costs for riders while "missing an opportunity" to tackle traffic congestion in Manhattan, for which ride-hailing companies have been blamed.

Firms will be forced to raise rates because the rules do not account for incentives and bonuses, which are used to encourage drivers to serve passengers outside Manhattan, said Jason Post, Uber's director of public affairs.

"Uber supports efforts to ensure that full-time drivers in NYC - whether driving with taxi, limo or Uber - are able to make a living wage, without harming outer borough riders who have been ignored by yellow taxi and underserved by mass transit," Post said in a statement.

Some drivers are still fighting for other protections even with the rules approved. More than 30 taxi medallion owners rallied outside City Hall Wednesday to urge officials to delay implementation of a forthcoming surcharge on taxi rides.

The state budget passed this spring enacted fees for trips below 96th Street in Manhattan of $2.75 for for-hire vehicles, $2.50 for yellow cabs and 75 cents for shared trips. The measure, set to kick in next month, is one piece of a broader congestion pricing proposal meant to help fund the MTA.

But taxi drivers say it will only put an additional financial burden on an industry already plagued by suicides, debt and stress.

"The suicide surcharge means more drivers are going to be driven to death," said Nicolae Hent, a longtime taxi driver and close friend of Nicanor Ochisor, a Queens cabbie who took his own life in March.

(Lead image: Cars are seen in Manhattan in July 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)