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New York City regulators are pointing to a significant increase in salaries for Uber drivers and other apps. The step that would make it the first major American city to establish wage rules to deal with the upheavals caused by the expansion of road transport companies that have decimated the yellow cab industry and left many drivers in financial ruin.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission was presented in a study published Monday and seeks to solve a problem at the heart of Uber's business model: its rides are often cheaper and more comfortable than taxis, but many his drivers have trouble
"Their low wages persisted despite the rapid growth of the industry," according to the study.
According to the proposed rules, if the earnings of a driver fall below $ 17.22 the hour during the course. from one week, companies will have to make up the difference. The study suggested that companies could absorb this cost in part by lowering their commissions, which range from about 10 to 25% of passenger fares on average. According to the study, the median net hourly earnings of the industry were about $ 14.25.
Cities around the world are wondering how to regulate the business. Seattle was the first city to approve a law allowing Uber and application drivers to unionize, but the measure faced a legal challenge. The mayor of Honolulu recently vetoed a bill to cap Uber's price increases during peak periods. In London, Uber recently recovered its operating license after accepting stricter government oversight.
New York's compensation rules would apply to four major automotive service applications – Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno – that provide more than 10,000 daily trips to New York. The rules do not specifically address the problems faced by yellow taxi drivers.
The taxi board has the power to adopt the rules without the support of Mayor Bill de Blasio or the City Council, but the Mayor says he prefers to address the driver "
" It s & # This is an important step in resolving one of the many urgent challenges facing the transport and taxi industries today, "said Taxi Commissioner Meera Joshi. On Monday, he had major concerns about the proposal. Alix Anfang, a spokeswoman, said in a statement that the company was concerned that this is detrimental to "substantial price increases and reduced services."
Vehicle and taxi drivers say they're not doing enough to pay their bills or support their families. Six professional drivers committed suicide in recent months.
The study is a rare glimpse of the New York wrinkle-hail industry. He found that about 40 percent of drivers have incomes so low that they are eligible for Medicaid and about 18 percent qualify for food coupons. Some motorists bought vehicles, lured by claims that they could earn up to $ 5,000 during their first month of driving, and feel trapped.
New York is considering a broader set of regulations for Uber, including a cap on vehicles, The City's Taxi Board has hired two independent economists to study its salary proposal, which has not yet been formally presented. Mrs. Joshi, who said that she wants wages to be raised, said the results would inform the new policies being reviewed by her commission and the city council. Although the commission can adopt the rules by itself, Mrs. Joshi was appointed by Mr. de Blasio and is likely to rely on him
. Mr. de Blasio's office said that the city would not "move until we reviewed the report and the mayor would make a decision," but the mayor supported a "comprehensive package" to address the issues. challenges in the taxi and leased vehicle sector.
million. De Blasio and other elected officials may be reluctant to start another deadly battle with Uber, who launched an aggressive attack on the mayor in 2015 when he tried to cover his vehicles.
A minimum wage of $ 17.22 an hour after an expense allowance would increase driver earnings by about 22.5 percent on average, or $ 6,345 a year, for those who would get increases under the proposal, according to the study. The proposal aims to align compensation with the minimum wage of $ 15 towards which the state is heading, while taking into account the challenges that drivers face as independent contractors. The findings and recommendations of the study did not relate to yellow taxi drivers.
In New York, the taxi board sets rules for taxis and private companies that offer hired rides. In the past, the commission has approved regulations to set a rental cap for taxis and to oblige companies like Uber to offer more wheelchair accessible vehicles.
Some drivers would earn significantly less than $ 17.22 at the time the expenses are much higher than the allowance.
Behind the proposed minimum hourly wage figure is a sophisticated arrangement designed to make the whole system based on applications more efficient. Its centerpiece is an incentive for business applications to increase their so-called usage rates – that is, the portion of each hour that drivers carry a passenger.
The authors say this incentive would respond to a key current inefficiency This system allows companies like Uber and Lyft to attract too many drivers down the road to reduce waiting times for passengers. This offer degrades wages because drivers can only earn money when they have a passenger in their car.
The study, which was based primarily on data collected from companies by the Taxi Board, was written by Dr. James Parrott. Center for New York Business at the New School and Professor Michael Reich, from the University of California at Berkeley.
Zubin Soleimany, a lawyer of the Taxi Workers Alliance, a group that supports professional drivers, criticized the proposal to accept the general wage structure of the application industry, which, a- he said, has created a race to the bottom that hurts both drivers and taxi drivers. His group prefers that apps charge at least the regulated taxi fare and give drivers a guaranteed percentage of that fare.
The Independent Drivers Guild, another group representing drivers, had a more positive reaction, stating that the minimum wage rate was the most important step to help drivers.
The proposal has at least two potentially significant flaws. Mr Soleimany pointed out that application drivers might end up having to work harder over time for the same amount of money. As drivers work a larger portion of each hour, the amounts they earn per kilometer per minute decrease, which does not allow them to get out financially.
But in an interview, Mr. Reich said that his calculations showed that the rate of use – the measure of activity – would only increase by a few points, which means that the drivers would work only slightly more (about 2.5 minutes per hour on average in a plausible scenario) for significantly higher pay (about 22.5% more per hour on
"We think they'll see this as a bargain, "said Mr. Reich.
A second problem is the gaming potential of the new system. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Since drivers have to be paid $ 17.22 at the time, no matter s & ## Whether or not they earn this amount by carrying passengers, they could choose to simply refuse walks and collect the minimum wage while remaining inactive.
Reich said that the companies in the application are able to to identify the application drivers q They refuse too many rides. But companies are reluctant to penalize drivers, whom they classify as entrepreneurs, for downward journeys because that would imply a working relationship.
Other researchers have also found that application-based drivers make low wages. A study conducted earlier this year by the liberal Economic Policy Institute, based on data published by Uber, showed that the company's drivers earned about $ 11.77 an hour on average at the national level. , net of expenses of Uber. The taxi board study roughly corresponds to this figure after adjusting for the New York pay scale, where wages are about 25% higher than the national average.
In New York, Uber annual revenue According to study estimates, 2 billion dollars. The company retains approximately $ 375 million in commissions and fees. Operating costs are estimated at $ 50 million each year
This type of markup, the authors conclude, was higher than almost any other similar market – higher than Amazon, which must carry more than Large stocks of goods and assume greater labor costs. much higher than companies like eBay and Etsy.
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