11 ms·

I was chatting with my Uber driver last week and he said he preferred Uber, because they guarantee $1500 a week provided you accept a certain amount of rides. T

by atopal 10y ago

I was chatting with my Uber driver last week and he said he preferred Uber, because they guarantee $1500 a week provided you accept a certain amount of rides. This is in SF.

FatalErrorr 10y ago
1500 is not bad
orblivion 10y ago
Evey Lyft/Uber driver I've ever spoken to always prefers Lyft. Then again I've never used Uber.
whack 10y ago
That comes out to a guaranteed $73k/year, even if you take 3 weeks of vacation. For a family where both parents are driving uber, that comes out to a family income of almost $150k/year. Considering the only skill you need is the ability to drive a car, that's insane.
- hkmurakami 10y ago
  The catch is that the guarantee promotion won't last forever. We all put our fates in others' hands to some degree as employees, but this definitely turns it up a notch to be a relatively unskilled worker depending on artificial temporary subsidies to set up your life. An analogous example is Japanese salarymen working many dozens of hours of overtime per month, becoming dependent on those extra hours and extra pay, structuring their life based on this inflated amount. When the financial crisis hit and firms tightened up, reducing or outright barring overtime work, these families suffered.
- SilasX 10y ago
  They only guarantee gross pay -- that figure doesn't include Uber's cut or operating expenses[1][2]. Together, that would make your taxable income something like 60% of the figure. [1] http://therideshareguy.com/what-to-make-of-the-2016-uber-hourly-guarantees/ http://therideshareguy.com/what-to-make-of-the-2016-uber-hou... [2] And seriously, phrasing the guarantee as before their own cut? Come on, guys.
  - calvinbhai 10y ago
    I cannot understand, why even highly educated people fail to make this distinction between gross pay and the net pay. If that "provided you accept certain amount of rides" keeps increasing since more people will make use of such subscriptions, the operating expenses (fuel + wear and tear) continues to increase.
    - koolba 10y ago
      Plus gas. Plus depreciating your car. Plus paying your own benefits. Plus 1099 double taxation. Yes that's pretty disingenuous.
      - linkregister 10y ago
        After deducting the IRS per-mile amount, the 1099 double taxation drastically drops.
  - the_watcher 10y ago
    > And seriously, phrasing the guarantee as before their own cut? Come on, guys. I see your point here and am annoyed by this tendency, but to be fair, in the US, this is pretty common. After all, salaries are reported pre-tax, despite a $100K salary meaning wildly different post-tax nets depending on where in the country you live.
    - SilasX 10y ago
      I wasn't objecting to pre-tax, I was objecting to pre-Uber's-cut. It's like if I said "I'll pay you $1200/week to work for me" and when your paycheck comes it's only $1000 (pretax) and I say, "oh yeah, that's my finder's fee". Nothing wrong with a finder's fee. Lots wrong with promoting the pre-fee value.
    - rhizome 10y ago
      It's like saying the income of a waiter is equal to the check totals they serve.

by atopal 10y ago

I was chatting with my Uber driver last week and he said he preferred Uber, because they guarantee $1500 a week provided you accept a certain amount of rides. This is in SF.

FatalErrorr 10y ago

1500 is not bad

orblivion 10y ago

Evey Lyft/Uber driver I've ever spoken to always prefers Lyft. Then again I've never used Uber.

whack 10y ago

That comes out to a guaranteed $73k/year, even if you take 3 weeks of vacation. For a family where both parents are driving uber, that comes out to a family income of almost $150k/year. Considering the only skill you need is the ability to drive a car, that's insane.

hkmurakami 10y ago
The catch is that the guarantee promotion won't last forever. We all put our fates in others' hands to some degree as employees, but this definitely turns it up a notch to be a relatively unskilled worker depending on artificial temporary subsidies to set up your life. An analogous example is Japanese salarymen working many dozens of hours of overtime per month, becoming dependent on those extra hours and extra pay, structuring their life based on this inflated amount. When the financial crisis hit and firms tightened up, reducing or outright barring overtime work, these families suffered.
SilasX 10y ago
They only guarantee gross pay -- that figure doesn't include Uber's cut or operating expenses[1][2]. Together, that would make your taxable income something like 60% of the figure. [1] http://therideshareguy.com/what-to-make-of-the-2016-uber-hourly-guarantees/ http://therideshareguy.com/what-to-make-of-the-2016-uber-hou... [2] And seriously, phrasing the guarantee as before their own cut? Come on, guys.
- calvinbhai 10y ago
  I cannot understand, why even highly educated people fail to make this distinction between gross pay and the net pay. If that "provided you accept certain amount of rides" keeps increasing since more people will make use of such subscriptions, the operating expenses (fuel + wear and tear) continues to increase.
  - koolba 10y ago
    Plus gas. Plus depreciating your car. Plus paying your own benefits. Plus 1099 double taxation. Yes that's pretty disingenuous.
    - linkregister 10y ago
      After deducting the IRS per-mile amount, the 1099 double taxation drastically drops.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  > And seriously, phrasing the guarantee as before their own cut? Come on, guys. I see your point here and am annoyed by this tendency, but to be fair, in the US, this is pretty common. After all, salaries are reported pre-tax, despite a $100K salary meaning wildly different post-tax nets depending on where in the country you live.
  - SilasX 10y ago
    I wasn't objecting to pre-tax, I was objecting to pre-Uber's-cut. It's like if I said "I'll pay you $1200/week to work for me" and when your paycheck comes it's only $1000 (pretax) and I say, "oh yeah, that's my finder's fee". Nothing wrong with a finder's fee. Lots wrong with promoting the pre-fee value.
  - rhizome 10y ago
    It's like saying the income of a waiter is equal to the check totals they serve.