An Uber sign is displayed inside a car in Glenview, Ill., on Dec. 17, 2022. Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft will pay a combined $328 million to settle wage theft claims in New York, Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft will pay a combined $328 million to settle wage theft claims in New York, Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.
James said the settlements resolve investigations into the companies improperly charging drivers sales taxes and other fees when the costs should have been paid by customers.
Uber will pay $290 million and Lyft will pay $38 million. The money will be distributed to current and former drivers, she said. The companies have also agreed to provide drivers outside of New York City with paid sick leave and give drivers outside of New York City a minimum wage of $26 per hour.
“For years, Uber and Lyft systemically cheated their drivers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in pay and benefits while they worked long hours in challenging conditions," James said in a statement.
Tony West, chief legal officer for Uber, said the agreement “helps put to rest the classification issue in New York and moves us forward with a model that reflects the way people are increasingly choosing to work.”
Lyft's chief policy officer, Jeremy Bird, said in a statement, “This is a win for drivers, and one we are proud to have achieved with the New York Attorney General’s Office.”
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
