On the other hand, most minimum wage jobs don't reimburse you for the costs or time spent commuting to and from work. I wonder if that significantly impacts the comparison.
In the other direction, I think the US also has higher self-employment taxes, and of course you don't get health insurance and other benefits. I wonder if that impacts the comparison, too.
>On the other hand, most minimum wage jobs don't reimburse you for the costs or time spent commuting to and from work
Uber definitely does not compensate your commute back to your home when you turn the app off.
I'm also pretty sure that Uber does not compensate you during your drive to pick up your first passenger, so unless your first passenger is waiting at your parking location, you have an un-reimbursed commute to work as well.
The $9.5/hour or $10.9/hour figure mentioned in the OP compensates for the time/distance traveled to pickup point, including your drive to pick up your first passenger. That was the figure I was referring to. You get misleading results if you compare a gross income from a minimum wage job to a net income from Uber.
> The compensating factor here would that Uber drivers are not compensated for the time/distance traveled to pickup point.
The $9.5/hour or $10.9/hour figure mentioned in the OP compensates for the time/distance traveled to pickup point, including your drive to pick up your first passenger. That was the figure I was referring to. You get misleading results if you compare a gross income from a minimum wage job to a net income from Uber.
> That is on par with other minimum wage jobs.
I asked a friend working a minimum wage job and she said she got benefits including insurance. Maybe she's an outlier?
In the other direction, I think the US also has higher self-employment taxes, and of course you don't get health insurance and other benefits. I wonder if that impacts the comparison, too.