https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/20/uber-lyft-leaving-minneapolis-minnesota-minimum-wage Uber and Lyft claim they will cease operating in the Minneapolis area in protest of a minimum pay ordinance that the city council voted to approve last week. The bill, to go into effect on 1 May, would establish a minimum pay of $1.40 per mile and $0.51 cents per minute for rideshare drivers, with a $5 per ride minimum. The city council voted to override the mayor’s veto of the ordinance, prompting Uber and Lyft to threaten to leave the region in response.
The cost will be passed onto customers.
No good solutions exist here, if you make this change uber adds extra fees and then riders use the app less and therefore drivers get less money from driving due to lower demand overall and some find other lines of work. Once you hit a new equilibrium it's nice I suppose for the drivers that stick around and make more per ride but in the transition ppl a lot of riders won't be able to afford rides and drivers will lose significant wages
How would riders reduce the rides? Would they stop going to places just because their Uber ride costs a dollar or two more? It's not like US has public transport that they can use.
Obviously the situations vary but for smaller length journeys folks will walk or take public transit mainly or socialize less, etc. Even if they didn't ride less, it wouldn't be good to make rides more unaffordable for the middle class. Simply put if riders could afford to pay more without dropping overall revenue Uber would already be doing it. It's an efficient market
I made to point to talk to most Uber drivers I ride with and unanimously they hate the WA (county specific) law that adds the surcharge Tax "intended to give them living wage". They say the rides has dropped significantly after the law and are making much less money, this is just another law in another form in another city. The stupid politicians don't know shit about open economy and make crazy bills making life difficult for commoners. These laws specifically discourage riders who used to take short commutes like home to school or library around their neighborhood, which are very profitable given the volume and how little time it takes to complete them, ultimately the earners are at loss.
Yeah they would say that. Once it passes they would tack on a regulatory surcharge on each trip and continue serving the area. Look at Doordash noise about capping restaurant cut in Santa Clara. Not so great for consumers though. Probably would attract more drivers so that's good.
Minnesota is a very small market. Uber has left markets that didn’t work. I wouldn’t call it an empty threat.