On September 29 the Seattle City Council approved the minimum pay rates for drivers who operate Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) and Lyft Inc. (LYFT) cabs around the Seattle area.
According to the new regulation which is due to take effecting starting January next year, drivers will be earning a standard minimum rate of $16.39 per hour. This is the same minimum rate for companies in Seattle which have more than 500 workers.
Citing data from the two ride hailing companies, most drivers in the Seattle area are part time drivers who earn roughly the same with the city’s median pay. This conclusion cancels out the perception that full time drivers work more for little pay.
The new Seattle law is crafted after a similar one in New York which specializes in reducing amount of time drivers spent cruising around the city without a passenger by paying the driver more during such times.
Officials from the city council claim the law will help in preventing ride hailing companies from over flooding the market at the expense of drivers.
On the other side, these ride hailing companies are crying foul claiming the law will force them to block some drivers from accessing the app as it was the case with the New York City law.
“ The City’s plan is deeply flawed and will actually destroy jobs for thousands of people as many as 4,000 drivers on Lyft alone and drive rideshare companies out of Seattle,” said Lyft.
