Two Minneapolis council members say they’ll make a fresh effort to push through a citywide ordinance that will get rideshare drivers closer to the city’s $15 minimum wage.
Council Members Robin Wonsley and Jason Chavez joined the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) at City Hall on Tuesday to tout an analysis that they say showed their proposed rates came closest to the city’s wage floor.
“Next steps, let’s, like, pass this finally,” Wonsley said. “And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have unanimous support from the council as well as Mayor [Jacob] Frey on this.”
In an email statement, Frey’s office said he continues to support paying Minneapolis rideshare drivers a fair and equitable wage. He supports a $1.17 per-mile and a $0.34 per minute pay rate for drivers.
That would roughly double the current rate of pay for drivers, according to the statement.
Wonsley’s proposed model would pay drivers a rate of $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute for the time transporting a rider in Minneapolis.
Wonsley’s proposed model would pay drivers a rate of $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute for the time transporting a rider in Minneapolis.
Wonsley said the goal is to have Uber and Lyft drivers, considered independent contractors, paid at least the city’s minimum wage. In an email to Sahan Journal, Uber says its drivers averaged $35 an hour for engaged time.
The rideshare giant said it has 10,000 active drivers in the Twin Cities metro area.
Wonsley said her ordinance would establish a standard pay for drivers across the city to hold Uber and Lyft accountable.
“There’s no data sharing that actually allows us to track what is that standard [rate]. So this is why we’re bringing this forward because, again, we can’t just rely on the anecdotal data,” Wonsley said.
The analysis was done by the Office of the City Auditor’s Policy and Research Division as requested by the City Council.
Alongside Wonsley’s compensation model, two other models were analyzed.
Model B, proposed by the mayor, had a minimum compensation rate of $1.17 per mile and $0.34 per minute for the time transporting a rider in Minneapolis.
Model C was proposed by an unnamed council member and was a flat rate of $24 per hour, which applied only during time on the way to pick up a rider or during the time transporting a rider.
The analysis was done as research for one of two proposed city ordinances Wonsley is drafting on rideshare drivers.
A past ordinance by Wonsley seeking to set a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers in the city was vetoed in August by Frey.
Drivers also had a setback at the state level where Governor Tim Walz vetoed a bill that would also set minimum wage standards for Uber and Lyft drivers.
MULDA President Eid Ali said it was hard not to get emotional as he and drivers have been fighting for increased wages for more than a year.
“It’s not that we’re here for fun, we’re just trying to share our experience,” Eid said, “So many of these drivers and their families are suffering as a result of not getting paid enough.”
The analysis was on the Business, Housing & Zoning Committee meeting agenda for Tuesday but was referred to the Committee of the Whole due to time constraints.
Wonsley said the earliest the two rideshare driver ordinances could be voted on by the city council is March 7.
Push for statewide solution
As drivers in Minneapolis await the proposed ordinances outcomes, at the state level another driver group is preparing a statewide offline movement and protest at the capitol.
MULDA Members, a splinter group formed after a disagreement between members of MULDA, has scheduled a rally at the State Capitol on Thursday.
The protest is in response to Walz’s veto in May.
MULDA Members and other drivers will rally outside the governor’s office from 1-3 p.m. while at the same time participating in a statewide offline movement where drivers statewide are being called to shut off their apps from 1-3 p.m. that day.
Both groups said they expect new bills to be introduced during the upcoming session related to rideshare driver wages and are hoping to avoid a second veto from Walz.
Ahead of the Legislative session, Uber has been meeting with driver groups in the Twin Cities.
During a video call last month, Uber told MULDA Members the best path to higher wages would come in the form of a statewide policy change, despite their opposition to last year’s bill, which led the company to threaten to pull service from most of the state.
