The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on friday that ride-sharing company Lyft agreed to pay $2.1 million as part of a proposed agreement That requires you to change how you advertise driver pay.
The company routinely advertised that drivers could earn “specific amounts per hour” (in one case, claiming earnings of “up to $33” per hour for driving in Atlanta) that were not based on an average, but on what one-fifth earned. top of the drivers. , according to the Commission. The company also apparently included tips in those figures.
Such measures “overinflated the actual earnings made by most drivers by up to 30%,” writes the FTC, which says the company must now base its potential wage claims on what drivers typically earn. And those amounts can no longer include tips as part of the established hourly pay.
“It is illegal to entice workers with misleading claims about how much they will earn at work,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC will continue to use all its tools to hold companies accountable when they violate the law and exploit American workers.”
The FTC included examples of offensive Lyft ads in its complaintlike the following.
Screenshots: United States of America Proposed Order Against Lyft, Inc.
Screenshots: United States of America Proposed Order Against Lyft, Inc.
Lyft also reportedly promoted income guarantees, such as one that promised $975 for completing 45 rides in a weekend. But that also misled drivers, who thought they would receive the amount as a bonus on top of what they earned, when the offer was actually a conditional minimum payment guarantee for making a set number of trips, according to the FTC. Now the company must make this fact clear.
Here is the proposed order:
in a statement on their websiteLyft highlights changes it has recently made to tell drivers how much they can earn and says it is “committed to following FTC best practices” in communicating such details.
