Uber Drivers Feel Pinch Of Rising Gas Prices

Driving for Uber (UBER) may be a job opportunity that you have been entertaining but have been uncertain about exactly how much you will make, especially considering the recent spike in gas prices.

According to Uber, how much you make as a driver “depends on when, where, and how often you drive.”

A report from Uber looked into the median hourly earnings before tips for drivers in a host of major cities across the U.S. as demand increased with more Americans getting COVID vaccines.

According to Uber’s report, drivers in New York City could earn as much as $37.44 an hour on average, while those in Miami were earning $27.50 an hour on average. Drivers in Los Angeles reported earning an average of $26.85 per hour and $30.49 an hour in Chicago.

Cities such as Washington, D.C., saw earnings of $26.62 per hour, while New Jersey Uber drivers earned $26.67 per hour on average, and those in Atlanta were earning $26.40 per hour.

The report continued to list cities such as San Francisco ($25.28 per hour), Houston ($22.97 per hour), Dallas ($26.32 per hour), Philadelphia ($32.60 per hour), Boston ($26.59 per hour), Orlando ($22.65 per hour, and Tampa Bay ($25.35 per hour).

But with rising gas prices, some Uber drivers are having trouble making ends meet.

Uber driver John Musumeci, who has been an Uber driver for four years, told KFMB, a CBS affiliate out of San Diego, California, that it “gets kind of hopeless feeling at times. You have no control over what next week is going to be or what the week before was. There’s a helpless feeling I see.”

Musumeci drives in an area where gas prices hit a new average record high of $6.403 on Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association.

He told KFMB, that he is spending twice as much on gas — about $260 per week. Uber drivers like Musumeci are responsible for paying for all their gas to drive their own cars as an Uber driver.

Musumeci said he previously worked four days a week and is now working about 50 hours a week “just to survive.”

Photo: Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images