- Uber drivers in Washington D.C. are struggling to make ends meet, Georgetown University researchers have found.
- In a two-year study, the researchers found more than half of drivers interviewed had incomes that fall below the poverty line.
- Drivers also often have no interaction with others working for Uber, adding to the isolation of working for an app.
Among the litany of frustrations with Uber — both with the company and app — expressed by drivers in interviews was one glaring problem: half of the drivers interviewed take home so little per month, less than $2,000 per month, that they fall below the government’s definition of poverty.
“75% of the drivers in this study said that they had never had a drink or meal with anyone else who had ever driven for Uber,” the study said. “The lack of physical space in which workers met or congregated creates a material barrier to collective identities and deeply shapes the geography of labor and possibilities for collective bargaining in the platform workplace.”