A bill guaranteeing Minnesota's Lyft and Uber drivers a minimum wage and benefits passed in the state senate and is headed to the Governor’s desk.
Chief author of the bill, Senator Omar Fateh (DFL- Minneapolis) says currently the costs of working ridesharing jobs are high and any profits made largely go to the companies they work for.
“Everything associated with the business they pay for,” says Fateh. “After all that's covered, then they're able to pay whatever is left for their food, for their families, for themselves. And we thought that was immoral and that's one of the reasons why we stepped up.”
While officials at Lyft and Uber are encouraging Governor Walz to veto the bill, which would be his first veto in over four years, Fateh says rideshare employees put their work on hold this week to protest in favor of the bill putting their livelihood at risk.
“These are long hours that they could have been taking to do their job, to drive for Uber and Lyft,” explained Fateh. “That's a lot of lost wages.”
Primarily, the bill would mandate minimum compensation rates for drivers on a per-mile and per-minute basis. It would also grant a driver the right to appeal a deactivation, providing an avenue to possibly reactivate their account on a rideshare app.
Rideshare companies have argued that many provisions would harm rider safety and lead to huge fare increases, making their service cost-prohibitive to many riders.
Republicans echoed those fears, criticizing the proposed changes to the deactivation process and sounding the alarm on the negative impacts to the rideshare economy.
“This would raise the cost of Uber and Lyft which would potentially drive down ridership. That would hurt our businesses, that would hurt the drivers,” said House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring).
“Uber says it will greatly limit our ability to remove dangerous drivers from the platform, including drivers accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, impaired driving, and discrimination,” said Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington).
The House did vote overwhelmingly to adopt numerous amendments that would require rideshare companies to permanently ban drivers who have been convicted of various serious crimes from their apps.
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