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

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as promised, on Friday morning 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 the state, on May 1 — when the ordinance would take effect — because, the companies say, the pay hikes would make it no longer worthwhile to to do business here.

Shortly after issuing the veto, Frey called a special council meeting next week for a swift veto override vote 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 companies will leave, and he had pleaded with council members to wait for a state study, which came out Friday, or soften their plan by lowering the pay hike to a degree that he said the companies would accept.

"I've been telling the council for six months now to wait for the data to come out," Frey told reporters Friday.

Supporters on the council characterized the companies' stance as a bluff, and suggested that if the state data due out the next day 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 out professional staff put into it," City Council President Elliot Payne said in a text Friday afternoon.

The council's 9-4 vote Thursday would be enough to override the veto, if all those votes hold. In Minneapolis, after any mayoral veto, the council is required to hold an override vote at its next meeting. Frey set the special meeting for 1 p.m. Thursday, a week before their regularly scheduled meeting.

If the veto is overridden, the ordinance will take effect May 1, the day the rideshare companies have said they'll cease operating.

The council members who most stridently supported the plan said Thursday they were confident they would override the veto.

But on Friday, Frey 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 a new study released Friday by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry that suggested drivers could earn the minimum wage equivalent — the stated goal of supporters of the council's plan.

The plan approved Thursday guarantees a floor 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 suggested $1.21 per mile and 49 cents per minute for rides across the metro could not only get riders the equivalent of Minneapolis' $15.57 hourly minimum wage, but also a suite of benefits, including paid leave, health insurance and retirement savings. Uber and Lyft criticized the study's analysis.

The approved 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 drivers' wages.