3 ms·

It seems to me that if Uber is unable to pay its drivers a living wage, they don't actually have a sustainable business model. They have a business model that r

by pfooti 10y ago

It seems to me that if Uber is unable to pay its drivers a living wage, they don't actually have a sustainable business model. They have a business model that relies on regulatory arbitrage (avoiding minimum wage or other employee-protection laws by skirting the Independent Contractor line as much as feasible), externalized costs (letting the government pay for things like food stamps and housing assistance), and good old fashioned exploitation of the working class. I mean, I understand that uber started because the taxi market was protectionist. But on the other hand, do taxi drivers have better pay and a better union? Often, yes. There may be a middle ground here. (* note that this argument applies to a lot of the gig-economy jobs out there, including lyft, doordash, and so on, not just Uber)

strken 10y ago
The article gave pay as either $15/h or $19/h before expenses, and cited expenses as being roughly a quarter of pay. Elsewhere in the article, a driver's pay is given as $12/h after expenses, which is consistent with the other numbers. Is that a livable wage? I'm not sure, but it's higher than minimum wage. Does it make Uber sustainable? I'm not sure, but it arguably makes it more sustainable than Walmart.
aianus 10y ago
> It seems to me that if Uber is unable to pay its drivers a living wage, they don't actually have a sustainable business model. Why does everything need to pay a living wage? Uber driving is so easy that there must be a sizeable population of people that are willing to do it for less than a 'living wage' (retirees, students, housewives who want to get out of the house once, unemployed people between jobhunting). I do it myself a few times a week just because I like driving, even though it pays literally 8x less than my day job.
- scarface74 10y ago
  We allow our 14 year old son to use Uber all of the time for our convenience/his independence but we used Uber for the first time last weekend during a "staycation". Out of the 6 drivers we had, 4 of them said they do it for a little extra spending money or to break the monotony of their day job. One of the drivers was a manager at Verizon's corporate office. When I was single and if I had enjoyed driving and wanted to kill some time, I could have seen myself being an Uber driver occasionally. I taught fitness classes a few times a week for years part time because I enjoyed it. It definitely wasn't for the money.

by pfooti 10y ago

strken 10y ago

The article gave pay as either $15/h or $19/h before expenses, and cited expenses as being roughly a quarter of pay. Elsewhere in the article, a driver's pay is given as $12/h after expenses, which is consistent with the other numbers. Is that a livable wage? I'm not sure, but it's higher than minimum wage. Does it make Uber sustainable? I'm not sure, but it arguably makes it more sustainable than Walmart.

aianus 10y ago

> It seems to me that if Uber is unable to pay its drivers a living wage, they don't actually have a sustainable business model. Why does everything need to pay a living wage? Uber driving is so easy that there must be a sizeable population of people that are willing to do it for less than a 'living wage' (retirees, students, housewives who want to get out of the house once, unemployed people between jobhunting). I do it myself a few times a week just because I like driving, even though it pays literally 8x less than my day job.

scarface74 10y ago
We allow our 14 year old son to use Uber all of the time for our convenience/his independence but we used Uber for the first time last weekend during a "staycation". Out of the 6 drivers we had, 4 of them said they do it for a little extra spending money or to break the monotony of their day job. One of the drivers was a manager at Verizon's corporate office. When I was single and if I had enjoyed driving and wanted to kill some time, I could have seen myself being an Uber driver occasionally. I taught fitness classes a few times a week for years part time because I enjoyed it. It definitely wasn't for the money.