Comment on Uber and Lyft now required to pay Massachusetts rideshare drivers $32 an hour

• picoblaanket@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  If you wait 10 minutes for a fare… give a 20-minute ride to some suburban house… and then drive 20 minutes back to the city…

  your pay would be $10.83 (with this new deal).

  …that’s very different from $32.50 per hour.

  • Does an airline baggage-handler only get paid for the “specific minutes” when he is lifting luggage?

  • Does a cashier only get paid for “specific minutes” when there are customers in her line?

  The original goal of this lawsuit was to classify drivers as employees under state law…

  And that goal was ignored completely.

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  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Does an airline baggage-handler only get paid for the “specific minutes” when he is lifting luggage?

    What’s actually tragic is similar things like this do happen in the air industry

    Flight attendants for example are typically paid only for hours on the plane. All the time getting to the plans through security screeninfs doesnt count. All the work they do at the gate before and after doesn’t count. It’s only hours in the plane.

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  • LordCrom@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Don’t give them any ideas. If they could pay luggage people only during times lifting luggage they would. They just don’t know how to yet

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  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I’m not arguing that this is a good deal or met whatever goal. I’m just saying it’s an upgrade. Also, as a former uber driver, there are strategies to make the best use of your time. If this new wage applied to my location I would buy a car and make a killing. That said, I’m in the minority that prefers to run their own business rather than be an employee so if I have to be a wage slave again then no thanks.

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    • picoblaanket@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Okay…

      Give me the math of how this new wage would help you “make a killing”.

      And before you say “I’ll just maximize the minutes when I have a customer in the vehicle”…

      this wage wouldn’t kick-in for that scenario…

      …it merely sets a floor for those specific-minutes when you have a fare.

      • (And brother - driving for uber is not “running your own business”… it’s being maximally-exploited by a business… with no liability-protection, no security, and almost zero rights.)

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      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        (And brother - driving for uber is not “running your own business”… it’s being maximally-exploited by a business… with no liability-protection, no security, and almost zero rights.)

        Both can be true! There’s a reason I quit that shit years ago.

        https://www.youtube.com/SolidDriver

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  • bitchkat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    But why wouldn’t you try and pick up a fair before driving 20 minutes back to the city?

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  • Pacmanlives@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I mean in Denver going from the airport or across the city is 20-40 minutes airport can be an hour at times

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  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    What you’re talking about is “waiting to be engaged” versus “engaged to wait.”

    The drivers are not on set schedules and have no obligation to the company except for the time between accepting a fare and dropping them off. If the drivers were required to return to a staging area and wait for a call the they’d need compensation. But they’re not. They can do whatever they want at that point.

    When I worked retail I wasn’t paid for the time between my shift’s end and the next one beginning, but that’s what you’re arguing for in this case.

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    • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      They can do whatever they want at that point.

      What else do you imagine they’re doing, though?

      I mean, Uber has constructed a model where “waiting for your next fare” and “going home to your partner” look the same in a spreadsheet, and that then becomes the justification for not paying them. It’s sleight of hand.

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    • picoblaanket@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      The central feature of their business IS having drivers WAITING when a ride is requested.

      So yes - it would be fair if they included some “waiting time” for each ride (maybe up to 15 minutes of actual waiting time).

      These apps ONLY have value if there are drivers WAITING when a ride is requested.

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      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        My Dad used to be a hot-shot delivery driver.

        He didn’t sit around waiting for a job. He’d go about his business and when his phone pinged he’d decide in the moment if he wanted to do the job.

        Sometimes we’d be watching TV and his phone would ping and he’d get up to leave. Sometimes he wasn’t interested and he’d let someone else get it.

        The issue with Uber, Lyft, etc isn’t that they treat their drivers as contractors. People who have they option of when, where, and whether to work and are paid per task aren’t employees. The problem is the pay is terrible for what they’re doing.

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