Uber CEO works on app for a day and reveals how much Eats drivers can make

The company joined other gig economy firms to defeat an initiative last autumn that would’ve given drivers more benefits

Josh Marcus

San Francisco

Sunday 27 June 2021 19:09 BST

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Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, whose annual salary is more than $12 million, revealed on Twitter how much Uber Eats drivers can make, after tweeting about his experience and profits working on the app for a day in San Francisco.

“Spent a few hours delivering for @UberEats,” he wrote on Saturday. “SF is an absolutely beautiful town. Restaurant workers were incredibly nice, every time. It was busy!!”

Twitter users asked him to share a detailed breakdown of his trips on the food delivery app, and the log of deliveries he posted showed that he earned $106.71 during a half-day period, meaning his hourly rate was roughly $30 an hour, well above the local, state and federal minimum wages.

Uber declined to answer questions about the average earnings of drivers in San Francisco and nationally as compared to the minimum wage. According to April 2021 data from the company, an Uber driver in San Francisco on the app for 20 hours a week earns a median wage of $25.28 per hour before tips or expenses.

Uber Eats drivers, however, are part-time contractors who provide their own transportation, food, healthcare, etc, and it has been claimed that they can take home less than that median figure, sometimes less than minimum wage.

This article was amended on 28 June 2021. The headline and article originally claimed that Mr Khosrowshahi’s tweet revealed that drivers barely make the minimum wage, but that was incorrect. We are happy to set the record straight.