that Uber and Lyft [previously] presented to state officials as a compromise to prevent the passage of AB5 ... [promising] to pay their drivers $21 an hour , provide them with sick leave, and ‘empower’ them to ‘have a collective voice’ — a nod toward drivers forming a union.”
UC Berkeley labor researchers Ken Jacobs and Michael Reich and colleagues performed their own assessment of the proposal, and concluded that – after expenses and unpaid time, which add up quickly – drivers’ average pay could be significantly lower than the guarantee suggests.entitled “The Uber/Lyft Ballot Initiative Guarantees only $5.64 an Hour,” Jacobs and Reich weighed the costs of gas and wear-and-tear per mile, the amount of that time that drivers spend carrying passengers vs.
They concluded that California drivers could end up pocketing less than half of the state’s minimum wage per hour, which rises to $13.00 in 2020, after all these factors are accounted for.“We decided to write this piece because we’re consulted [about] pay standards by many people, including policymakers, and we’ve both worked on the question of pay standards, especially state and local ones, for a couple of decades,” Reich said in a phone interview.
Reich added, “Our study in NYC showed that companies are actually making quite a bit of money on each ride, and while it’s true that they’re corporation-wide, I think it holds across the country that they’re making good profits in urban markets. They can afford to pay drivers more, and take lower commissions.”
Probably not
What if they are encouraging the fight in order to keep new entries out of the market
They are a threat to car manufacturers and public transport..