CHART BOOK ON WAGES, OPERATING COSTS, AND COST OF LIVING FOR TAXICAB DRIVERS IN NEW YORK CITY Prepared for the Taxi Workers Alliance by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Current and Proposed Hourly Wages for Taxi Workers, and Other Wage Benchmarks, in 2002 dollars $25.00 $20.10 $20.00 $15.00 $11.74 $13.83 $10.00 $6.73 $5.81 $5.15 $5.00 $0.00 Current taxi worker wage Taxi worker wage under MTBOT proposal Taxi worker wage under NYTWA proposal Minimum wage Median hourly wage for New York City Self-sufficiency wage for 2 adults and 2 children in Queens Notes: Estimates for current and proposed taxi worker wages are based on average lease rates, average bookings per shift, and average fuel costs. The minimum wage is the current state minimum hourly wage. The median hourly wage for New York City is taken from Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) and adjusted using the CPI-All Urban Consumers Series for NY-NJ-CT-PA. The self-sufficiency wage is taken from: D. Pearce and J. Brooks. (2000). The Self-Sufficiency Standard for the City of New York. New York, NY: Women's Center for Education and Career Advancement.
Current and Proposed Taxi Worker Wages, As a Percent of Self-Sufficiency Wage 10 9 8 7 58.4% 6 5 4 33.5% 28.9% 3 2 1 Current taxi worker wage Taxi worker wage under MTBOT proposal Taxi worker wage under NYTWA proposal Estimates for current and proposed taxi worker wages are based on average lease rates, average bookings per shift, and average fuel costs. The self-sufficiency wage is taken from: D. Pearce and J. Brooks. (2000). The Self-Sufficiency Standard for the City of New York. New York, NY: Women's Center for Education and Career Advancement.
Driver's Operating Costs, As Percent of Total Bookings 10 9 8 64.9% 7 55. 6 5 39.3% 4 3 2 1 Current Under MTBOT proposal Under NYTWA proposal Estimates for current and proposed taxi worker wages are based on average lease rates, average bookings per shift, and average fuel costs. The self-sufficiency wage is taken from: D. Pearce and J. Brooks. (2000). The Self-Sufficiency Standard for the City of New York. New York, NY: Women's Center for Education and Career Advancement.
$16 $14 Typical Taxicab Fares for Major Metropolitan Areas, 2003 Typical taxicab fare $12 $10 $8 $6 $4 $2 $0 New York City Dallas New Orleans Philadelphia Atlanta Houston Chicago Los Angeles Boston San Francisco Taxi cab fare is cost of a 5-mile trip with 2 minute delay, as reported by TLC Magazine, March 2003, p. 4. Cost of Living for Major Metropolitan Areas, End of 2002 200 180 160 Cost of living index 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 New York City Dallas New Orleans Philadelphia Atlanta Houston Chicago Los Angeles Boston San Francisco Cost of living is indexed to U.S. average=100, taken from ACCRA, 2002, fourth quarter (value for New York is average of Manhattan and Queens)
Increase in the Cost of Living, Gasoline, and Average Taxicab Fare in New York 3 2.5 CPI - all items Index (1979=100) 2 1.5 Average fare CPI - gasoline 1 0.5 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Consumer Price Index (CPI) is for NY-NJ-CT-PA region, All Urban Consumers. Average fare is for New York City, based on average trip of 2.47 miles with 4.6 minutes of wait time.
Percentage Increase in the Cost of Living, Gasoline and Average Taxicab Fare, 1979-2002 18 16 16 14 112% 12 10 8 5 6 4 2 CPI - all items CPI - gasoline Average taxicab Consumer Price Index (CPI) is for NY-NJ-CT-PA region, All Urban Consumers. Average fare is for New York City, based on average trip of 2.47 miles with 4.6 minutes of wait time.
Percentage Increase in the Cost of Living, Gasoline and Average Taxicab Fare, 1996-2002 18% 15. 16% 14% 12% 1 7.1% 8% 6% 4% 2% CPI - all items CPI - gasoline Average taxicab Consumer Price Index (CPI) is for NY-NJ-CT-PA region, All Urban Consumers. Average fare is for New York City, based on average trip of 2.47 miles with 4.6 minutes of wait time.