Minneapolis City Council overrides Frey’s veto on ordinance boosting rideshare driver pay
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Updated: 6:23 p.m.
The Minneapolis City Council overturned Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of an ordinance that will raise pay and offer more protections to rideshare drivers.
At a Thursday meeting, council members voted to override the veto 10-3. It’s expected to go into effect on May 1.
The ordinance will boost rideshare driver pay to 51 cents per minute and $1.40 a mile, with a minimum of $5 for each fare. It will also require that 80 percent of any fees for canceled rides be paid to drivers and exempt tips from minimum compensation. The ordinance largely mirrors one passed by the council last year that Frey also vetoed. That year, council did not have the necessary votes to override the veto.
Supporters of the recently passed ordinance said it ensures drivers are paid at least as much as is required by the city’s minimum wage policy.
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Farhan Badel, a driver for Uber and Lyft, was jubilant.
“Today’s a great day for all the workers in the city,” Badel said.
The companies say the ordinance will make the services too expensive for many riders. Lyft said in a statement last week that the ordinance “ignores economic reality” and could make rides more expensive for many riders. The company said Thursday that it plans to stop serving Minneapolis on May 1, when the ordinance goes into effect.
“We support a minimum earning standard for drivers, but it should be done in an honest way that keeps the service affordable for riders,” Lyft said in a statement after the vote. “We will continue to advocate for a statewide solution in Minnesota that balances the needs of riders and drivers and hope to return to Minneapolis as soon as possible."
Frey said everyone wants Uber and Lyft drivers to be paid more. But, he added, “getting a raise doesn’t do a whole lot of good if you lose your job entirely.”
Frey said council should have consulted with rideshare companies and rideshare users while the ordinance was being crafted.
“The reality is that whenever you create a policy you have to engage with all of the parties involved even if you don’t necessarily want to, even if you don’t agree with them at all,” he said.
On Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz said he worried about the impact the city council’s veto override could have on ride services outside of Minneapolis. And he said he would consider a statewide approach to ensure Uber and Lyft continue operating in Minnesota.
“We might have to look at it because this is going to negatively impact Duluth, it’s going to negatively impact all of our suburbs, it's going to negatively impact Moorhead, if they choose to do that,” Walz told MPR News ahead of the vote.
Republican lawmakers in response to the news called on Democrats at the Capitol to bring a bill preempting the Minneapolis ordinance. Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, and a handful of others on Thursday said they would work with DFLers, if they reached out for help.
“The important thing is the state has to do something now,” Garofalo said. “We need to move forward or everyone's going to lose Uber and Lyft on May 1.”
The votes could be necessary to pass a proposal through the narrowly split Legislature. DFLers in both chambers have introduced bills similar to Minneapolis’ proposal that set a minimum wage for drivers and other protections.
DFL leaders at the Capitol said they’re not interested in a preemption approach. Instead, they said they should push forward a statewide minimum wage rate for rideshare drivers based on results from a report released by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
“We’re going to be bringing everyone together to have a conversation about how we reach agreement with the governor, the House and the Senate,” House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said. “We tried to legislative approach last year that didn’t work so well. So we need to make sure that we have everybody in agreement before we pass anything.”
