Here's how much Uber pays drivers in 16 different cities, according to a new study

• Uber says that its drivers make more than $30 an hour on average.
• That rate varies between major US cities, a new study shows.
• With expenses, Uber's pay rate in some cities is below the federal minimum wage, per the study.

How much you make as an Uber driver might depend on where you are.

Pay rates working for the ride-hailing app vary widely between different US cities, according to a data analysis by Len Sherman, an executive in residence and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

In Orlando, for example, Uber offered drivers a median of 72 cents a mile, or $19.30 per hour spent on a ride, Sherman's analysis showed. Those figures do not include any driving costs, such as gas. On the other end of the spectrum, Uber offered drivers in Los Angeles a median pay of $2.15 per mile, or $46 per hour.

Sherman estimated pay per mile and per hour while on an active ride. In most cases, the driver won't be paid for the time they spend waiting for their next ride. For example, A rate of $40 per active hour could mean a driver gets paid $10 for a 15-minute trip, with no pay for time spent waiting.

Accounting for driving costs as well as the number and distance of average ride-hailing trips, drivers in six of the 16 cities made less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, Sherman estimated.

Uber has previously said that its drivers earn more than $30 per hour, which they spend while on their way to pick up a passenger or while driving them. Sherman's data shows a more complicated picture: Drivers may earn significantly more or less than that depending on which city they're working in.

GigU, a third-party app that helps drivers evaluate potential trips, collected the data, which included about 1.8 million trip offers between March 2025 and March 2026. The data includes both jobs drivers accepted and offers they declined, which are often lower-paying.

An Uber spokesperson said that the analysis "is riddled with flaws." Sherman's calculations likely overrepresented lower-paying offers that drivers rejected and excluded tips, promotional payments, and minimum wage adjustment payments that drivers receive in states like California and Massachusetts.

Uber also said it disagreed with Sherman's calculations, including the average trip length and trips-per-hour figure that he used in the analysis. The spokesperson declined to provide Uber's own estimates of those figures or what Uber pays its drivers, but said that Uber's pay per engaged hour is "on average more than 25% higher" than Sherman's figures.

Sherman told Business Insider that he stands by his calculations, adding that they show "a far more realistic picture" of what drivers can earn working for Uber than the company has provided so far.

While many drivers are selective about which trips they take, the data gives a sense of regional disparities, Sherman told Business Insider. Many of the cities where Uber offers the highest pay rates, such as Boston and Los Angeles, have local minimum pay laws, he said.

Meanwhile, in some tourist hotspots, such as Las Vegas and Orlando, pay was lower, likely because of many drivers competing for trips, Sherman said.

"This is what they're trying to get drivers to accept," he said.

Sherman has also studied other aspects of Uber's business. The company has increased its share of each fare in recent years, which has helped it turn a profit, Sherman has argued.

Here are Sherman's findings, including both gross pay rates and estimated pay after major expenses:

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Sherman estimated what Uber drivers in each of the 16 cities made after expenses like gas and car maintenance, he told Business Insider. The figures don't take into account vehicle depreciation, he said.

His calculations included estimates of how many trips drivers take on average and the typical trip distance. He used the pay-per-mile figures to calculate how much drivers get to keep.

After expenses, the city with the highest hourly pay rate on Uber was Boston, where drivers could earn $21.87 per active hour. Massachusetts law requires ride-hailing services to pay drivers at least $34.48 an hour.

Orlando had the lowest pay rate at $3.18 an hour, Sherman found.

Here are the pay rates for each city before expenses:

Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.