Frey vetoes plan to raise pay for Uber and Lyft drivers, calls for swift override vote

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as promised, on Friday vetoed a pay hike for rideshare drivers approved by the City Council the day before.

Uber and Lyft have vowed to leave the city, and perhaps Minnesota, on May 1 — when the ordinance would take effect — saying the increase would make doing business here no longer worthwhile.

Shortly after issuing the veto, Frey called a special council meeting next week for a swift veto override vote in order to prepare the public as soon as possible for the potential departure of the companies, the only two licensed rideshare providers in the city.

Frey said he believes Uber and Lyft will leave, and he had pleaded with council members to wait for a state study, which was issued Friday, or lower the pay increase to a level acceptable to the companies.

“I’ve been telling the council for six months now to wait for the data to come out,” he told reporters Friday.

Council members who supported the pay increase said the companies’ threat was a bluff. They said that if Friday’s report proved useful, they could amend the ordinance before May 1.

“We are all reading and digesting the report. I’m proud of the vote we took yesterday and the work the authors and our professional staff put into it,” City Council President Elliott Payne said in a text Friday afternoon.

If Thursday’s 9-4 council vote holds, it would be enough to override Frey’s veto. City Council is required to hold an override vote at its next meeting after the mayor issues a veto. Frey set the special meeting for 1 p.m. Thursday, a week before council’s regularly scheduled meeting.

The council members who most stridently supported the plan said Thursday that they were confident Frey’s veto would be overridden.

But Friday, the mayor said he was optimistic that at least one council member would change their vote, allowing his veto to stand.

He said his arguments were bolstered by the new study from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. It suggested how drivers could earn the minimum wage equivalent — the stated goal of supporters of the council’s plan.

The newly passed ordinance would guarantee a minimum wage of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute. The driver of a wheelchair-accessible vehicle would get $1.81 per mile.

Frey had pushed for a minimum payment of $1.20 per mile and 35 cents per minute. The state-commissioned study found that a wage of $1.21 per mile and 49 cents per minute for rides across the metro could get drivers both the equivalent of Minneapolis’ $15.57 hourly minimum wage and a suite of benefits, including paid leave, health insurance and retirement savings.

However, Uber and Lyft criticized the study’s analysis.

The City Council plan includes additional provisions, including a $5 minimum payment for any ride, annual increases for drivers and restrictions on how money can be deducted from their wages.