Uber to increase prices in New York after being hit by new legislation

Uber are to hike their prices in New York after new legislation forcing them to pay drivers a set minimum wage was approved by New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission. Lyft and Juno may also follow suit.

The minimum wage is to be set at $27.86 per hour before deductions. Drivers are expected to receive around $17.22 per hour after expenses, which according to Vox is a $5 upweight in a ride-hailing app drivers income.

However, it's not all good news for drivers as both Lyft and Juno have filed a lawsuit against New York City in state court on Wednesday, January 30, in an attempt to block the law from going into effect.

It has been claimed that the reason for the lawsuit is because the new legislation unfairly benefits Uber.

The attempted block is aimed at how the law is being implemented rather than the law itself. 

The opposition to the new legislation pertains to the formula being used to determine how drivers are paid. 

Drivers won’t be paid a set hourly rate, they will instead be paid via a per-minute and per-mile calculation. 

However, this has raised a major issue for Lyft and Juno  because Uber has a larger share of drivers. As a result of this they  claim that they can’t offer drivers the same work level as Uber can.

As a result of the lawsuit,  Lyft and Juno drivers won’t be getting the mandated raises until the issues have been resolved.  

Uber, who are not challenging the law will be pushing the additional costs on to passengers, although it is unclear as to how much of an increase may be passed on to the consumer.