A recent study suggests Chicago drivers earn less than minimum wage.
> After accounting for driving expenses and self-employment taxes, the average TNP driver in Chicago earns about 3% to 5% less than minimum wage. In 2019, drivers earned $12.30 per hour, or 5% less than the city’s minimum wage of $13 per hour at the time. In 2020, drivers earn slightly above minimum wage, but the hourly rate of pay was artificially inflated due to the reduction of traffic congestion on Chicago roads. With pre-pandemic levels of traffic congestion, drivers would have only earned an hourly wage of $13.62 per hour after expenses and taxes, which is 3% below the city’s minimum wage of $14 per hour at the time. The authors note that the city’s minimum wage will increase to $15 per hour on July 1, 2021.
So it's unskilled labor that offers the same (+/- a single digit percentage) pay after expenses as compared to other minimum wage jobs, but offers substantially better flexibility of hours. I can still see why plenty of people would prefer it to flipping burgers.
I 100% refute that story. After taxes I’m still making close to $30/hr. I get to write off mileage at $.58/mile so my taxes get lowered.
I can show anyone my weekly driver log that shows how many hours I drove and how much I was paid. It is at least $42/hr and on weekends it can be $50/hr.
The take away here is not that you are wrong or that Uber is a bad choice for everyone. It's that some number of people provide diving services to Uber at a rate lower than we generally allow.
So it's about if we want to let companies hire individuals to do contract work that would be below the level we would allow someone to hire an employee. And, if we do (which I think we should) how do we set the standards of such an arrangement? Being an app driver is clearly different from being a traditional independent contractor (handyman, etc), but it is also different from being an employee. What a fair and just version of this relationship looks like is, to me, obviously unsettled.
P.s. Uber lost ~$4.5B last year on ~$11B revenue. It does not seem reasonable to say that the payment rates you've been getting represent what Uber 'will be' in a long term way. The economic situation is not sustainable.
Well good thing independent contractors are exempt from minimum wage laws! And union protections, mandatory breaks, sick days, workers compensation, health insurance, overtime pay, discrimination law, unemployment insurance, employer liabilities to social security pay...
Wait a minute, I think this is intentional! Can you imagine an employer trying to subvert the gains of the labor movement?!
Uber isn't subverting the labor movement. It's a very small part of the overall economy. Go look at bigger industry practices to find the bad guys.
The Uber model will never translate to Retail, Tech, Banking, Finance, Healthcare.
It does translate to transportation, food and package delivery. Let the disruption make capitalism more efficient. Focus on areas where a balance is important, like making healthcare and college universally free.
> After accounting for driving expenses and self-employment taxes, the average TNP driver in Chicago earns about 3% to 5% less than minimum wage. In 2019, drivers earned $12.30 per hour, or 5% less than the city’s minimum wage of $13 per hour at the time. In 2020, drivers earn slightly above minimum wage, but the hourly rate of pay was artificially inflated due to the reduction of traffic congestion on Chicago roads. With pre-pandemic levels of traffic congestion, drivers would have only earned an hourly wage of $13.62 per hour after expenses and taxes, which is 3% below the city’s minimum wage of $14 per hour at the time. The authors note that the city’s minimum wage will increase to $15 per hour on July 1, 2021.
https://illinoisupdate.com/2021/01/26/release-the-average-ub...
Hm.