Uber and Lyft threaten to cease service in Minneapolis over minimal wage regulation : NPR

Uber and Lyft have vowed to droop service in Minneapolis. The announcement comes after a dramatic back-and-forth tussle with metropolis management over the previous yr, which boils right down to minimal wage pay for Uber and Lyft drivers.

Working with a coalition of ride-hail drivers, the Minneapolis metropolis council handed a invoice final August that will require Uber and Lyft to pay drivers a minimal of $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute — charges that the town approximates would add as much as drivers incomes the $15.57 minimal wage after bills.

Uber and Lyft drivers are solely paid after they’re giving passengers a journey, not whereas they’re ready, so minimal wage calculations aren’t primarily based on hourly pay. Presently, drivers in Minneapolis make a median of $13.63 per hour after bills, in response to knowledge from the state.

Shortly after the minimal wage invoice was handed, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed it, saying “this ordinance wants extra work.” Council members then introduced ahead one other measure round driver pay, which handed final week in a 9-4 vote, regardless of Frey saying he’d veto that one, too. Then, on Thursday, the town council voted to override that mayoral veto.

Frey didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

“It is a David and Goliath story,” Council Member Robin Wonsley, the lead writer on the coverage, stated in a press release. “Common working-class individuals took on two company giants and their political allies, and gained.”

The firms are preventing again, nonetheless. Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin stated the corporate will shut down operations in Minneapolis when the regulation takes impact on Could 1. He known as it “deeply flawed” and stated it was “jammed via.”

Uber’s senior director of public affairs, Josh Gold, stated “We’re disillusioned the Council selected to disregard the info and kick Uber out of the Twin Cities.”

Uber and Lyft have a protracted observe file of battling minimal wage legal guidelines and driver safety payments in cities throughout the nation, together with in New York, Seattle and Denver. In California, Uber, Lyft and different gig corporations spent greater than $200 million to go a poll measure that ensures drivers will not get labeled as workers within the state.

The businesses deal with their drivers as unbiased contractors, which implies drivers pay for their very own work bills, like automotive upkeep and fuel. Drivers do not get medical health insurance, sick pay or different worker advantages via the businesses.

Throughout Uber and Lyft’s skirmishes in New York and California, the businesses additionally vowed to cease service. Final yr, the businesses even stated they’d halt operations in better Minnesota after the state handed a separate minimal wage invoice for ride-hail drivers. Gov. Tim Waltz vetoed that invoice, saying “this isn’t the proper invoice.”

Labor advocates and Minneapolis ride-hail drivers say they need to have the identical alternatives to earn a dwelling wage and the identical rights as different employees.

“Town council has accomplished precisely what authorities ought to do for each truthful labor and truthful competitors: be certain that employees are getting paid in ways in which maintain their livelihoods,” stated Veena Dubal, a labor regulation professor on the College of California, Irvine Faculty of Regulation. “Uber and Lyft are appearing like petulant youngsters. Frankly, in the event that they do go away, excessive highway alternate options will take their place. It’s potential to have each shopper comfort and good wages.”