For drivers, the strike boils down to pay. The two ridesharing giants, which have been valued at billions of dollars each by the market and investors, continue to be criticized by workers and labor groups for classifying drivers as contractors, as opposed to full-time employees, and taking more and more of the profit per ride. A 2018 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that nationwide Uber drivers make less than $12 per hour, on average.
Curbed
May 8, 2019
Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute found that Uber drivers earn an hourly wage of $9.21 on average, after deducting things like fees and commissions. That wage lands below the hourly minimum wage in most of Uber’s major markets, the researchers concluded.
MarketWatch
May 8, 2019
Insurance premiums have jumped dramatically in the last 20 years, from almost $6,000 in 1999 to more than $18,000 in 2016, according to a report released late last year by the Economic Policy Institute. Between 2006 and 2016, out-of-pocket expenses rose more than 53 percent. Health care expenses accounted for 51.7 percent of the average annual earnings for the bottom 90 percent of the workforce in 2016, compared to 25.6 percent in 1999.
World Socialist Web Site
May 8, 2019
Uber drivers earn $9.21 on average in hourly wages, after taking the cost of fees, vehicle expenses and a basic health insurance plan, according to a study released Tuesday by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. About 833,000 people drive for Uber in a year, according to the research, but the workers tend to leave the job quickly and average only 17 hours per week of work.
The Post and Courier
May 8, 2019
If you take an Uber or Lyft on Wednesday in several major U.S. cities, you’ll be crossing a picket line in the eyes of many drivers. Thousands of workers for ride-hail apps are expected to strike ahead of Uber’s highly anticipated initial public offering, which is scheduled for Friday. The mobility company is expected to go public with a valuation topping $90 billion, which would be the third-largest public offering on record and would make millionaires out of many early Uber employees. Drivers for Uber, on the other hand, earn what the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute estimates is $9.21 on average after expenses. Just last month in Los Angeles, Uber reduced what it pays drivers per mile by 25 percent, slashing the rate from 80 cents per mile to 60 cents.
Slate
May 8, 2019
Uber noted that a recent study whose authors included current and former Uber employees showed driver gross earnings averaged $21 an hour. But a study by left-leaning Washington think tank Economic Policy Institute calculated that after costs, Uber drivers earned $9.21 an hour.
Reuters
May 8, 2019
Research that accounts for the financial risks borne by ride-share drivers in this arrangement has found that their hourly pay often falls short of the minimum wage. When factoring in fees drivers pay the company, vehicle-related expenses and out-of-pocket spending on payroll taxes and health care benefits, the average hourly wage of an Uber driver was $9.41, according to a May 2018 study conducted by the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
The Huffington Post
May 8, 2019
While slapping on tariffs in what is supposed to the final rounds of trade talks also seems dramatic, Robert E. Scott, senior economist and director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, said he doubts they will actually materialize.
Think Progress
May 8, 2019
Trade tensions do carry risks for both countries, undoubtedly, but the greater hazard lies in perpetuating the present abuses. After all, since the mistaken Clinton/Bush decision to integrate China fully into the World Trade Organization, China’s trade manipulation has led to the incredible loss of 3.4 million U.S. jobs in this century, according to the union-backed 2018 study of the Economic Policy Institute. Many China apologists ascribe manufacturing jobs losses here wholly to automation. But former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Katharine Abraham published a report with University of Maryland colleagues determining that China compelled about twice as many workers to leave the U.S. workforce as did automation.
Real Clear Politics
May 8, 2019
But starting in the 1990s, a competing strand of thinking has gained a foothold, using its own studies to argue minimum wage hikes did not have the adverse effects that had been feared. It started with David Card and Alan Krueger, who studied worker pay at fast-food joints in New Jersey, in 1994. The new research from UMass Amherst’s Doruk Cengiz and Arindrajit Dube, the Economic Policy Institute’s Ben Zipperer, and the University College London’s Atilla Lindner is the latest volley from that latter school of thought.
VOX
May 8, 2019