Uber And Lyft Drivers In One Major City Are About To Get A Huge Raise
Uber and Lyft drivers in New York City will receive up to 23.93% raises along with yellow and green cab drivers.
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Uber and Lyft are to increase their drivers’ minimum pay in New York City due to rising costs for their drivers and an overall driver shortage. This new rise will come into place by the end of 2022.
New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission have put in place the new pay raises. Drivers who charge per minute will get an increase of 7.42%, and those who charge per mile will receive a 23.93% rise. It is not just Uber and Lyft drivers that were given a pay rise; yellow and green taxi cabs also got a wage increase of 23% by year-end.
By increasing the taxi driver’s wages, the city hopes to encourage more people to become taxi drivers as, at the moment, there isn’t enough to cope with the demand. The increase is the first pay rise for yellow and green taxi drivers in New York City for ten years, so it is definitely deserved. It will help Uber and Lyft drivers pay for increasing operating expenses such as gas and the general cost of living, which is also rising.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission stated that the new pay rise is the minimum that Uber and Lyft, along with every other taxi driver, should be paid and that employers can pay them more if they wish. There is also no guidance on how much companies should charge customers, which is left to the individual company’s discretion.
Uber and Lyft have not confirmed how these pay rises will affect customers and if their customers will have to foot the bill for these increases. If customers are to foot the bill, it will cost 22.9% more to use these services. It could cause fewer people to take their taxis as a lot of the population has less expendable money than last year.
Uber and Lyft drivers also got a wage increase in February due to higher operational costs and the rising cost of living. While taxi drivers in New York are happy, Uber was against another wage increase and wanted the city to vote against it. The reason behind this protest is due to locking in inflated operational costs. If their taxi drivers were given another raise due to inflation, these operational costs would be solidified long after inflation has eventually reduced, but they were awarded it anyway.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance are happy about the rise as it gives drivers a higher income after expenses so that they can afford the necessities like everyone else. Taxi drivers and yellow cabs, particularly, are a tourist attraction in their own right in New York. Why not treat them like they are essential to the city’s economy?
Running a business and working in this climate is not easy. With the rising cost of everything, companies cannot forecast their spending or profits as no one knows when the increases will end. Through all this madness and instability, essential products and services, like taxi drivers, must be protected as they are crucial to modern life. Without Uber and Lyft and yellow taxi cabs, New York wouldn’t be New York, and life would not be so convenient.
