Uber drivers averaging $6.37 per hour: report
Uber’s proposed Provincial policy is a poverty trap, not a gig work solution, say Ridefair, RDAO
On February 12th, 2024, Ridefair Toronto and the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario (RDAO) released a report titled “Legislated Poverty” to address Uber’s deceptive and poorly understood claim that the median earning for Toronto drivers comes to $33.35 per engaged hour. The report estimates that this figure corresponds to actual hourly earnings of about $6.37 per hour after expenses, well below Ontario’s minimum wage of $16.55. The report is available here.
“Minimum wage laws exist to protect everyone, no matter who you are, what kind of work you do, or whether you work full-time, part-time or casually. We are letting gig workers fall through the cracks,” says Earla Phillips, Vice President of the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario.
Uber’s poverty model not unique to Toronto and is borne out by drivers’ pay stubs.
“Our findings for Toronto align with recent estimates of driver hourly earnings in California (US$6.20/hr), Seattle (US$9.63/hr) and Denver (US$5.49/hr), as well as reports from Toronto ride-hail drivers. After expenses, none of the 96 weekly paystubs provided to us by the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario reached Ontario’s minimum wage standards; in many cases, drivers lost money,” says JJ Fueser, a researcher with Ridefair Toronto and the report’s co-author.
The report also examines Uber’s policy proposal for Ontario’s Provincial government – a separate minimum wage standard for gig workers set at 120% of the Province’s minimum wage, but only for “engaged time.”
“At current engagement rates,” says Fueser, “Uber’s 120% model works out to an average of $11.92 per hour before expenses. Once you consider costs, that translates at best to $2.50, and nothing stops earnings from dropping below that level.”
“When we ask what proportion of gig workers make below the Province’s hourly minimum wage for all time worked, including expenses, that number should be zero,” adds Phillips.
