Rideshare Drivers Plead For Better Pay

Drivers for Uber, Lyft and Doordash gathered outside Union Station to steer support towards better base pay and trip transparency — as another bill aiming to protect the rights of rideshare and delivery workers moves through the state legislature.

Around 10 independent employees for those apps and members of worker-led organization Connecticut Drivers United on Wednesday morning passed out coffee, donuts and flyers educating passersby on the implications of Raised Senate Bill 1180: An Act Concerning Rideshare and Delivery Driver Minimum Standards.

That bill would set base pay rates per mile and minute, ensure drivers are compensated even when customers cancel a requested trip, and mandate that all tips go directly to workers, among a slate of pay upgrades. It would also require that companies are transparent about how much drivers, customers and the company themselves pay and receive from each ride. The bill demands apps provide receipts stating the length of a trip, the number of miles, how much a customer paid, what the driver was paid, how much the customer tipped, and what deductions are made to the driver’s fare. The bill would also pave the way for Connecticut rideshare drivers to be able pick up customers out of state. 

Read more about some of the complaints consistently cited by New Haveners employed by Uber and Lyft here. The rally — and the bill — marked the latest in what has become an annual push by local rideshare drivers to secure better pay and more transparency in what they have criticized as an often exploitative industry.

“Would you rather the profits remain with the BIPOC community or pay for somebody’s Malibu Barbie dream house?” 

That’s how Uber Driver and organizer Alex Johnson asked her audience via megaphone to consider the bill up for debate.

Implicit in her question was a critique of written testimony provided by another app, Lyft, to the state legislature for a public hearing held on the bill back on March 9. In that letter, Brendan Joyce, Lyft’s Public Policy Manager argued that the bill would require Lyft to increase costs for customers, which would ​“pose a unique threat to riders of color in Connecticut, given that a majority of riders, 56 percent, in the state identify as members of a racial or ethnic minority group.” 

Read further testimony from Uber’s spokesperson here. Both statements oppose the bill, arguing that the new regulations would increase rider fares by extreme measures, hurting not just those who depend on Uber for transportation but reducing driving opportunities for employees.

Wednesday’s rally outside Union Station offered an opportunity for drivers to respond to statements produced by Uber and Lyft during that public hearing. The workers also hoped to garner backing and energy the day before the state legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee is set to meet in Hartford and online in order to pick up discussions on the bill’s fate.

Jesenia Rodriguez, 44, argued during a sidewalk speech that the vast majority of drivers for Uber and Lyft are people of color struggling to make ends meet. If Uber and Lyft were interested in equity, she said, they would raise wages for their workers.

Pointing to her independent colleagues, she declared: ​“We are from every country, every community, every religion, every language, every color.”

“Our drivers are being priced out of their own jobs. They will leave, but the abuse will continue.”

Teresa Jackson, 54, told the Independent she has been working for Uber and Lyft for the past seven years.

At the time, she was training to become a bus driver. She soon had to sacrifice that plan when she took on responsibility for caring for her ailing father. He was diagnosed with dementia the same time she discovered she had breast cancer; any job with a fixed schedule was out of the question.

So, Uber became the only way she could try to make money to meet rent and stay fed while balancing chemo treatments, surgeries and supporting her father.

“I was able to pay my bills by doing it,” she said. ​“Because the pay was better back then.”

Jackson, along with several others present Wednesday, said that when Uber was founded more than a decade ago they managed to pay drivers nearly twice as much as they currently do.

She said that in the past, Uber would extract a fixed percentage from rides and provide information about what customers paid. Then, Uber began calculating how much drivers earned according to an algorithm that took into account how long and how far workers traveled and abstained from providing information about how much customers paid, or tipped. Now, she and others claimed, Uber states how much drivers will be paid before their trip without adjusting that amount after the fact to account for outstanding issues such as extensive traffic. 

Uber’s website does not explain exactly how it determines payment for employees. But it does say that the distance traversed and time expended by drivers is factored into the overall payment along with a base fare.

In any case, Jackson and company said that over time they have become more dependent on Uber as their main or only form of income while seeing profits falter.

Often, Uber pays them less than a dollar per mile, which they said doesn’t pan out when drivers also have to pay for gas, insurance and vehicle upkeep.

People like Elvis Caranza, who worked for Uber for the past decade, are leaving the apps in pursuit of better paying options. He said he similarly started dropping off passengers and later food deliveries through Uber for the sake of freedom of schedule — but has now transitioned to driving for Amazon in exchange for more predictable pay.

“I don’t know what other work I can get,” Jackson said when asked if she’s considering other work options. ​“My health has deteriorated. Most of the jobs I would be eligible for require standing on your feet all day.”

She is currently in remission after a second bout of breast cancer and her father recently went into remission for a more recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. But they could be sent back for daily treatments at any time if it returns, she said. 

She said she can only fit in about 30 hours of driving at a maximum per week while her father is engaged in a day care program at Mary Wade and her grandson, who she has recently started babysitting while her daughter attends school and works full-time, is in school.

Jackson said that ideally, she would also like to receive benefits from her work with Uber. ​“I’m not getting any sick pay or family leave,” she said. ​“That would make life easier for me to keep up with what I need to take care of.”

Such benefits are not included in the latest bill up for debate. Another related bill that was killed in 2021 sought to promote driver unions and sectoral bargaining while leaving drivers classified as independent contractors — but drivers themselves criticized the proposed legislation for failing to directly ensure any improvements in pay or protection. Read about that in detail here.

While Jackson said she had no choice but to continue chasing income through apps like Uber and Lyft, other protestors sought to remind those crossing Union Avenue Wednesday of the importance of the work performed by drivers like himself.

Uber driver Joseph Adjei said: ​“We save lives. If people are drunk, they can’t drive. We drive them. We help people go to work. We help people contribute to society. We help people enjoy their lives.”