NYC offers a 5% increase for carpooling drivers in order to appease Uber and Lyft

The New York Taxis and Limousines Commission (TLC) has been established on the new rules of the minimum wage for carpooling pilots, Bloomberg reports. Drivers will receive an increase of five percent under the new proposal, a compromise to prevent Uber and Lyft from locking the drivers of their applications.

The proposal must be voted by the Council of TLC commissioners before entering into force, but assuming that this is the case, this will end up months of uncertainty for drivers working in the city. Uber started sporadically Lock the drivers of its application In May 2024, preventing them from making journeys and making money. The company blocked access to its application to avoid having to pay drivers who worked but not actively journeys. In addition to introducing a minimum wage for drivers who started about $ 18 an hour In 2022, New York also included stipulations in its law which required that drivers be paid for time of time between the rides, something that Uber and Lyft naturally had a problem.

Bloomberg writing that the TLC initially offered an increase of 6.1% to try to disincice Uber and Lyft to lock drivers. The proposal would adjust the way in which the driver’s payment is calculated, in exchange for an initial increase and a guarantee that drivers are warned before losing access to a carpooling application. Setting up on an increase of five percent and a commitment not to increase wages each year and based on “industry dynamics”, is a new capitulation. The one that is not enough for Lyft, apparently. The company said Bloomberg This, “although these changes are a step in the right direction, we always fear that the underlying remuneration formula always deprives drivers of possibilities of winning, will increase the prices of cyclists and will reduce the availability of driving.”

Uber and Lyft have long had a controversial relationship with the governments of cities and states about the protections of drivers. Compared to the passage of Prop 22 in Californiawho reclassifying the concert workers as an entrepreneurs after Another law made the oppositeEven a reduction in the minimum wage law in New York is better than nothing.