New York City's taxi regulators approved the nation's first pay floor for Uber drivers on Tuesday. Rules passed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission set a minimum pay formula for the city's major ride-hailing services that officials say will boost drivers' annual earnings by thousands of dollars.
"New York City is the first city globally to recognize that the tens of thousands of men and women who are responsible for providing increasingly popular rides that begin with the touch of a screen deserve to make a livable wage and protection against companies from unilaterally reducing it," TLC Chair Meera Joshi said in a statement.
The rules, expected to be in effect in mid-January, establish a formula that will determine how much the city's four high-volume ride-hailing apps — Uber, Lyft, Via and Juno — are required to pay drivers for each trip.
The formula factors in the length of the trip in miles and minutes as well as a "utilization rate," a measure of how much time drivers spend actually carrying passengers. It also includes a bonus for shared rides.
The TLC says drivers will be guaranteed to make the equivalent of $27.86 an hour, or $17.22 after expenses. That equates to a $15-per-hour minimum wage for independent contractors, which app-based drivers are generally considered.
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