The war heats up over Seattle’s attempts to regulate Uber and Lyft drivers’ pay

Back in April, it seemed the City of Seattle had finally made peace with Uber and Lyft; after years of legislation and lawsuits, they settled in court and all parties agreed to work together to determine a fair compensation standard for TNC drivers. Sadly, it was not to last: earlier this month a new skirmish broke out, with dueling studies, academic cat-fighting, and some big policy questions coming to the forefront.

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Mayor proposes increasing tax on Uber & Lyft rides, minimum wage for drivers

(update below) Tomorrow morning, Mayor Durkan will unveil another of her 2020 budget initiatives: increasing the tax on Uber and Lyft rides in the city. In combination with that, she will announce a proposal to institute a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers. Mayor Jenny Durkan and Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan briefing the press on the proposed new tax on Uber and Lyft rides and minimum wage for TNC drivers

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Understanding the dueling minimum wage studies

Last week, a team of Berkeley researchers published a study on the effects of Seattle’s minimum wage on the food service industry up through March of 2016, that concluded that wages had indeed gone up, and there was no sign that employment had gone down in response.  Yesterday, a team of researchers at UW published a similar study, looking at data through September of 2016, concluding that employment had gone significantly down. Huh?

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