Minneapolis -- it's not her type of city any more.
Posted on 03/16/2024 9:47:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Uber and Lyft are pulling their services out of Minneapolis after the city council passed an ordinance that will increase drivers’ pay. Both companies say they will no longer offer ridesharing services in the city when the ordinance goes into effect on May 1st.
The ordinance, which guarantees drivers a minimum rate of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute while carrying a rider, was first passed last week but later vetoed by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The City Council voted 10–3 to override the veto on Thursday.
Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin calls the ordinance “deeply flawed,” as the rates were determined before the state released a study detailing how much drivers would have to be paid to earn Minneapolis’ $15.57 per hour minimum wage. The study analyzed over 18 million trips taken in 2022. It found that drivers could earn the city’s minimum wage — while also accounting for health insurance, paid leave, and retirement savings — with rates of $1.21 per mile and 49 cents per minute, lower than what the city council approved. “We support a minimum earning standard for drivers,” Macklin says, “but it should be done in an honest way that keeps the service affordable for riders.”
Uber spokesperson Josh Gold similarly tells The Verge that it’s “disappointed the Council chose to ignore the data and kick Uber out of the Twin Cities.” The company says the move will leave 10,000 drivers without work. “We know that by working together with all stakeholders — drivers, riders and state leaders — we can achieve comprehensive statewide legislation that guarantees drivers a fair minimum wage, protects their independence and keeps rideshare affordable,” Gold says.
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Minneapolis council member Jamal Osman said that affordable rides shouldn’t come at the expense of the drivers’ welfare. “Drivers are human beings with families,” he said, “and they deserve dignified minimum wages like all other workers.” He added that the “vote showed Uber, Lyft, and the Mayor that the Minneapolis City Council will not allow the East African community, or any community, to be exploited for cheap labor.”
Last year, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz vetoed a bill that would’ve increased wages for Uber and Lyft drivers across the state, saying at the time it could “make Minnesota one of the most expensive states in the country for rideshare.” With both Lyft and Uber saying they’ll leave Minneapolis, concerns remain about how people will get around the city and the effect it will have on those with disabilities. A report from Axios revealed that Minneapolis only has 39 licensed cab drivers, far less than the 2,000 cab drivers in 2014.
Some areas already set a minimum wage for ridesharing and food delivery drivers. Last year, New York City enacted a new rule that will increase drivers’ minimum wage to around $18 an hour to start, while Seattle has a rule that requires companies like DoorDash, Uber, and Instacart to give delivery drivers paid sick time off. Uber also started paying drivers a minimum wage in the United Kingdom in 2021.
Why wait? Why not immediately?
39 taxi drivers........LOL...LOL...LOL...Wait until everyone is waiting for hours for one ride....Annnnd then has to wait for hours back again.......Will muslim drivers be okay with dogs or booze in the taxis??????
MSP is long lost.
WAY past time to withdraw.
A liberal hell hole.
Hahahahahahahahaha…
The Left is going out of its way to make MN a swing state again.
Minneapolis -- it's not her type of city any more.
Shows you what Somalis can accomplish when they come together. Take that, white man!
Congrats to the democrat politicians who get free cars and insurance and to the democrat party in whole for raising the costs. Now the drivers will have no job and the people who use Uber and Lyft will have no ride.....
Let’s see they can take a more expensive taxi just as was planned in California where the taxi companies bribed the city gov’t there. To coverup the bribes from the taxi companies the democrats had the minimum wage increased to $20.
It spread and now many many thousands of people are out of work as a result. Now the fast food prices are too high and the employees are being replaced by robots and people who take your order at the drive thru are from out of state where the pay is lower.
Minneapolis rapidly fell into decay, as a consequence of “liberal group think” plus Jimmy Carter rustbelt economic theories that were pablum for the liberal media.
By 1978, Minneapolis downtown, was a ghost town.
Shyty council. TOTALITARIAN collective.
Politicians should never be able to tell any business what wage they must pay. They can’t manage their city, state or nation let alone a business.
I’m having trouble figuring out how it can be profitable for the drivers to do what they do & make a living wage & at the same time make it cheap enough for a rider to afford it. Not sure how it would work out. Generally speaking, how much would a driver make annually & what would it cost for a ride based on per mile?
Who cares, leave!
Ain’t diversity grand?
This story is a minor detail and far from the worst example.
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