"Uber drivers earn less than $8 per hour, says new report from gig worker advocacy group," 31 Jan. 2023

Uber Technologies Inc.’s drivers in the Toronto area earn an average of $7.90 an hour, well below Ontario’s minimum wage of $15.50, after costs associated with using their personal cars for work are deducted from their pay, according to a new report by the advocacy group RideFairTO.

The report estimates that these costs – which include payments for things such as fuel, car insurance and maintenance – amount to at least $12 an hour for a typical driver. Excluding all the expenses, the average wage of an Uber driver in Toronto is about $20 an hour, according to the report. The figure does not account for tips.

... In a statement to The Globe and Mail, Uber said the numbers in the report “do not align” with what its drivers are seeing. The company said that, in December, drivers in the Toronto area earned a median wage of $33.98 an hour for “engaged time” – that is, time they spent actually driving passengers around or making deliveries. That figure does not include tips, the company said.

... RideFairTO’s $20-an-hour figure includes both engaged time, for which Uber drivers are paid, and the unpaid time they spent waiting between rides and deliveries.

... The fact that digital platform workers are not paid for wait times between deliveries or rides has drawn the ire of labour advocates. They argue that these workers should be designated as employees, which would require app-makers to pay them a minimum wage for the entirety of time they spend logged on.

... In April [2022], the Ontario government passed legislation that forced ridesharing companies to pay their drivers and couriers a minimum wage, but only for engaged time.