Uber drivers will get minimum-wage protection in New York City - Quartz - 1 views
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odilechagny on 09 Dec 18"Uber drivers are getting minimum-wage protection for the very first time By Alison GriswoldDecember 4, 2018 New York City voted Tuesday (Dec. 4) to enact a first-of-its-kind pay floor for ride-hail drivers, who as independent contractors are not protected by federal or state minimum-wage laws. The pay standard approved by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission aims to raise drivers' take-home pay to $17.22 an hour, an increase of 44%. The new pay floor, which takes effect in 30 days, could raise annual wages for 70,000 professional drivers in the city by as much as $9,600. The taxi commission's actions come amid a devastating string of suicides by professional drivers in New York City. Eight drivers have died by suicide since late 2017: Roy Kim, a yellow cab owner and driver; Fausto Luna, an Uber driver; Abdul Saleh, a yellow cab lease driver; Yu Mein Kenny Chow, a yellow cab owner and driver; Nicanor Ochisor, a yellow taxi owner and driver; Danilo Corporan Castillo, a Bronx livery driver; Alfredo Perez, a Bronx livery driver; and Douglas Schifter, a black-car driver. A common theme in each case was economic despair and a sense of betrayal by politicians and regulators who allowed the yellow-cab industry to be steamrolled by companies like Uber and Lyft. Castillo wrote his suicide note on the back of a taxi commission summons. Schifter shot himself in front of City Hall. "This first-time regulation to form a floor for app driver earnings and give a modest first raise is a long time in the making," Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the pro-driver New York Taxi Workers Alliance said in a statement. "It's the first real attempt anywhere to stop app driver pay cuts, which is an Uber and Lyft business practice at the heart of poverty wages." The pay standard approved by the commission makes use of a clever formula devised by economists James Parrott and Michael Reich for a July report on driver earnings commissioned by New York City. T