Dan Ocampo

In Historic Win, NYC Extends Just Cause Protections to App-based Ridehail and Delivery Workers - National Employment Law Project NELP applauds the New York City Council for extending just cause protections to app-based workers.

After a hard-fought campaign against #Uber & #Doordash, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance & the Workers Justice Project won just cause protections against the unfair firings that plague the ridehail and delivery industries.
www.nelp.org/in-historic-...

@paulsonn.bsky.social @nelp.org

Companies like Uber and Instacart shouldn’t be able to weaponize your data to set individualized algorithmic prices or wages. It’s bad for workers, it’s bad for consumers, and New York City should do something about it. Our latest for @NYFiscalPolicy: open.substack.com/pub/nycpolic...

Big tech shouldn’t be able to weaponize your personal data to jack up consumer prices and low-ball worker pay for people who don’t have other options.

The law just requires companies to offer a tipping option before checkout, rather than after your order is delivered. Both companies used to give consumers the option upfront but then switched as retaliation for the minimum pay laws passing a couple years ago

Uber and DoorDash Try to Halt N.Y.C. Law That Encourages Tipping

Uber and DoorDash now arguing that a new city law violates the First Amendment because it forces them to speak a “government-mandated message” about the “controversial subject” of tipping. This is the kind of stuff that should be sanctionable

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/n...

Workers deserve dignity and transparency. Yesterday at the Capitol, NELP's Laura Padin spoke fiercely about the reality of app-based work. The Empowering App-Based Workers Act finally brings sunlight, fairness, and limits on how much corporations take from each fare.

Congress needs to pass it.

NELP’s @laurapadin.bsky.social speaking at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol🏛️about why passing the Empowering App-Based Workers Act is an important step in building a #GoodJobsEconomy 📢

What does the data say? www.nelp.org/insights-res...

Uber Boosts Buybacks by $20 Billion After Upbeat Forecast Uber Technologies Inc.’s upbeat forecast and better-than-expected quarterly gross bookings failed to boost the rideshare and food-delivery company Wednesday, with shares handing back some of their imp...

$20 billion in stock buybacks funded mainly by slashing driver wages--who are already making below the minimum wage across the US. Shareholder capitalism at work www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Surveillance pricing is here. Airlines like Delta are following the Uber playbook: using AI to set individualized prices, maximizing the value they can extract from each consumer based on personal data they collect.

Here’s what I had to say about the bills at the city council back in December:

s27147.pcdn.co/app/uploads/...

It builds on the success of the food delivery worker minimum pay standard, which increased wages to $19.78 an hour—while NYC’s app delivery industry continues to thrive.

The landmark package of bills passed by the City Council would ensure better pay transparency, safeguard worker tips, and extend the city’s nation-leading minimum pay rate to include grocery and package delivery workers for companies like Instacart and Amazon Flex.

Proud to stand alongside my friends at Los Deliveristas Unidos yesterday to celebrate another major victory for New York City’s delivery workers.

Excellent work @jmlstein.bsky.social @rdbinns.bsky.social

6/ In sum, Uber is using its AI algorithms to squeeze more value out of workers, while drivers are earning less and their working conditions are worse.

It's one example of the "enshittification" of work from AI and surveillance capitalism--and it's a story that won't stop with Uber.

5/ Working conditions are also worse. Drivers now spend more time waiting for trips than carrying passengers, and pay is much less predictable. This forces them to organize their lives around an algorithm without knowing what they'll earn.

4/ Uber is also capturing much more "surplus value" (the revenue generated per on-trip driver hour minus labor cost) with dynamic pricing, mostly by taking a higher percentage of high-value fares, a phenomenon obscured by the overall average take rate.

UK Uber drivers’ earnings cut after changes to secretive algorithm Introduction of ‘dynamic pricing’ also coincided with company raising trip prices, researchers finds

3/ Meanwhile, Uber’s median take rate in the UK increased from 25% to 29%. On some individual trips, Uber pocketed more than 50% of the fare, with higher take rates concentrated on more valuable trips.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

2/ The data show a significant drop in driver pay after dynamic pricing was introduced. Average hourly pay fell from £22.20 to £19.06--before factoring in driver expenses. For a subset of 114 consistent drivers, 93 of them now earn less per hour.

Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing Ride-sharing platforms like Uber market themselves as enabling `flexibility' for their workforce, meaning that drivers are expected to anticipate when and where the algorithm will allocate them jobs, ...

1/ Another study about algorithmic wage-setting!! This one from Oxford and @workerinfox.bsky.social, analyzing 1.5 million Uber trips in the UK, shows how dynamic pricing has made the experience of driving for Uber much worse.
arxiv.org/abs/2506.15278

Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing Ride-sharing platforms like Uber market themselves as enabling `flexibility' for their workforce, meaning that drivers are expected to anticipate when and where the algorithm will allocate them jobs, ...

New paper out today, accepted at #FAccT2025, led by Jake Stein and me: "Not Even Nice Work If You Can Get It; A Longitudinal Study of Uber's Algorithmic Pay and Pricing" arxiv.org/abs/2506.15278

Over the last 3 years, we've been working with @workerinfox.bsky.social to audit Uber's algorithms. 1/

New Research Exposes Deepening Exploitation of Uber Drivers by Algorithmic Pay New Research Exposes Deepening Exploitation of Uber Drivers by Algorithmic Pay

New - Oxford University research in partnership with @Workerinfox exposes deepening exploitation of Uber drivers by algorithmic pay
www.workerinfoexchange.org/post/new-res...

Excellent work @jmlstein.bsky.social @rdbinns.bsky.social

6/ In sum, Uber is using its AI algorithms to squeeze more value out of workers, while drivers are earning less and their working conditions are worse.

It's one example of the "enshittification" of work from AI and surveillance capitalism--and it's a story that won't stop with Uber.

5/ Working conditions are also worse. Drivers now spend more time waiting for trips than carrying passengers, and pay is much less predictable. This forces them to organize their lives around an algorithm without knowing what they'll earn.

4/ Uber is also capturing much more "surplus value" (the revenue generated per on-trip driver hour minus labor cost) with dynamic pricing, mostly by taking a higher percentage of high-value fares, a phenomenon obscured by the overall average take rate.

3/ Meanwhile, Uber’s median take rate in the UK increased from 25% to 29%. On some individual trips, Uber pocketed more than 50% of the fare, with higher take rates concentrated on more valuable trips.

2/ The data show a significant drop in driver pay after dynamic pricing was introduced. Average hourly pay fell from £22.20 to £19.06--before factoring in driver expenses. For a subset of 114 consistent drivers, 93 of them now earn less per hour.