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Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

reuters.com

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Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#21

Post by jakelazaroff »

goalonetwo wrote: post #14
bogota wrote: post #2

“Wage theft” what? It’s very transparent what you are getting paid and what the deal is when you drive for uber or lyft. Argue all you want for thinking that law makers should be setting special wages for specific industries. Personally i think they should stay out of it but man i would be mad as someone living in the city that these services are no longer available.

I would be even more mad if I was driving for Uber in those cities and overnight the government made the decision for me to remove that as an income option.

According to the article, Uber and Lyft made the decision to stop operating, not the government.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#22

Post by thrownaway13371 »

goalonetwo wrote: post #11
crooked-v wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they can't pay even minimum wage, it was already uneconomical and being subsidized by government welfare.

Tax labor correctly then, so that it reflects how much the government wellfare will need to subsidize. Simplistic feel-good minimum wage laws are creating unemployment. This is a perfect example.

Uber and Lyft can easily afford to pay their workers the minimum wage, it would however hurt their record profits and set a precedence that they would need to pay a living wage across all cities. Amazingly all other businesses in this city are already able to afford the minimum wage. This is a perfect example of a company tossing some of the lowest income members of society literally to the street rather than pay them a living wage. Thank god we have minimum wage laws.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#23

Post by thrownaway13371 »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #8
crooked-v wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they can't pay even minimum wage, it was already uneconomical and being subsidized by government welfare.

How is that true? Plenty of people work minimum wage jobs that aren't subsidized by government welfare. If someone has a roommate or a partner or a parent or a child that supports them? There are some jobs that are only economically viable at a certain wage, and anything beyond that makes it not economically viable. So those jobs won't exist.

Exactly, if you can't afford to pay a living wage you have a bad business model, which is exactly what the comment you responded to was pointing out.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#24

Post by mattigames »

newfriend wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #4

Hopefully more cities pass laws like this. Minneapolis must be enjoying a reduction in traffic congestion as people move onto public transit.

I wonder how the people who relied on income from driving must be enjoying the reduced traffic.

Its not like self driving cars where not going to take their jobs soon after anyway right? All this rush to push tech forwards isn't for that end?

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#25

Post by thrownaway13371 »

newfriend wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #4

Hopefully more cities pass laws like this. Minneapolis must be enjoying a reduction in traffic congestion as people move onto public transit.

I wonder how the people who relied on income from driving must be enjoying the reduced traffic.

Yeah it's unfortunate a corporate giant would rather throw them to the street rather than pay them a living wage. It's a good thing to root out exploitation like Uber and Lyft.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#26

Post by bovermyer »

Huh, I suppose that will affect my trip in May. Guess I'll be taking taxis instead.

Hopefully the situation has a net positive outcome for the community.

Edit: clarification - I hope the situation is resolved in a way that benefits everyone as much as possible and hurts as few possible.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#27

Post by bogota »

olliej wrote: post #15
bogota wrote: post #2

“Wage theft” what? It’s very transparent what you are getting paid and what the deal is when you drive for uber or lyft. Argue all you want for thinking that law makers should be setting special wages for specific industries. Personally i think they should stay out of it but man i would be mad as someone living in the city that these services are no longer available.

It's wage theft, because the law says you owe employees minimum wages by law, and if you aren't paying them that amount, you're stealing the excess from your employees. The fact that you think you should be allowed to pay people less than the legal requirement is not relevant, the law says you owe people $X, so if you pay them less than X, it is theft. The problem Lyft and Uber have is the same AirBnB is starting to…

Its pretty hard to apply min wage intended for w2 to gig work when the laws are treating you as both.

So they have to let the drivers have complete freedom over what they do and what rides they take and when they do it. But also you have to follow min wage laws which apply when?

Im sure Uber and Lyft can redesign the system to work with this model and im sure the consumer will hate the new prices.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#28

Post by sunshowers »

bogota wrote: post #2

“Wage theft” what? It’s very transparent what you are getting paid and what the deal is when you drive for uber or lyft. Argue all you want for thinking that law makers should be setting special wages for specific industries. Personally i think they should stay out of it but man i would be mad as someone living in the city that these services are no longer available.

Look up "monopsony". Also, it's not at all transparent what cut Uber and Lyft are taking from a ride.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#29

Post by thrownaway13371 »

goalonetwo wrote: post #9
kypro wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think you're mad as a consumer, imagine all the Uber/Lyft drivers who no longer have any income because the government has made it uneconomical for their employer to do business in their city.

that is the dirty truth. All of those feel-good minimum wage laws are in fact stealing wages from those workers. Those workers were OK to work for those wages before the law. Now they have nothing. The result is now higher unemployment and use of tax-dollar to subsidize those people.

Those workers often had no other choice other than to get exploited to scrape by, and now businesses who will refuse to pay a living wage have thrown them to the street. It's clearly economically viable for them to pay the bare minimum, but they will literally cease business than accept slightly lower profit margins.

Re: Uber, Lyft to stop operations in Minneapolis over minimum wage law

#30

Post by bluefirebrand »

kypro wrote: post #3
bogota wrote: post #2

“Wage theft” what? It’s very transparent what you are getting paid and what the deal is when you drive for uber or lyft. Argue all you want for thinking that law makers should be setting special wages for specific industries. Personally i think they should stay out of it but man i would be mad as someone living in the city that these services are no longer available.

If you think you're mad as a consumer, imagine all the Uber/Lyft drivers who no longer have any income because the government has made it uneconomical for their employer to do business in their city.

I think I'm more angry about employers feeling so entitled to labor that they would rather close their doors and fire everyone than pay them even remotely fairly
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