In New York City, Uber and Lyft must pay drivers at least a per-trip minimum set by the Taxi and Limousine Commission. As of March 1, 2026, the NYC Uber minimum pay rate for a standard vehicle on a trip within city limits is $1.283 per mile plus $0.681 per minute, and the same floor applies to Lyft.1Taxi & Limousine Commission. Driver Pay Rates Higher rates apply to wheelchair-accessible vehicles and to trips that leave the city.
Current Per-Trip Rates
The TLC sets four rate combinations depending on the vehicle type and whether the trip stays inside the five boroughs. For trips that begin and end within New York City:1Taxi & Limousine Commission. Driver Pay Rates
- Standard vehicle: $1.283 per mile and $0.681 per minute.
- Wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV): $1.601 per mile and $0.681 per minute.
For the portion of a trip that travels outside city limits:
- Standard vehicle: $1.757 per mile and $0.725 per minute.
- WAV: $2.193 per mile and $0.725 per minute.
WAV drivers earn more per mile on every ride. The higher rate is meant to offset the additional operating costs of accessible vehicles and to push platforms to dispatch them.
How the Minimum Is Calculated
Every trip generates a required payment with two parts: miles driven multiplied by the per-mile rate, plus trip minutes multiplied by the per-minute rate. Active time runs from the moment you accept the dispatch through the end of the ride, so the drive to pick up the passenger counts. Time between trips does not.
The rates above already include an adjustment called the utilization rate. The TLC’s underlying base per-mile rate is $0.850 for a standard vehicle and $1.061 for a WAV; those figures are divided by a 68.5% utilization rate to produce the $1.283 and $1.601 figures platforms actually pay. The per-minute component is divided by a 53.3% utilization rate.2New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. Notice of Promulgation – Driver Pay Rules
The utilization rate measures how much of a driver’s logged-in time is spent carrying passengers. When drivers sit idle, utilization drops and the per-trip cost to the platform rises. That gives Uber and Lyft a financial reason not to flood the streets with more cars than their trip volume supports.
One component that used to exist is gone: the shared-ride bonus for pool trips has been repealed.3New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. Notice of Promulgation Pool trips now pay the standard per-mile and per-minute rates with no separate add-on.
Who’s Covered and What the Floor Doesn’t Guarantee
The pay rules apply only to High-Volume For-Hire Services, defined as any base or group of affiliated bases under a common brand that dispatches an average of 10,000 or more trips per day in the city.4New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Rules In practice that is Uber and Lyft. Yellow cabs, street-hail liveries, and smaller black-car services operate under separate fare rules and are not covered.
The floor applies to every trip that starts inside New York City, no matter where the passenger is dropped off. Trips originating outside the city aren’t covered by these rates.1Taxi & Limousine Commission. Driver Pay Rates
One point of frequent confusion: this is a per-trip minimum, not a minimum wage. There is no guaranteed hourly rate. What you take home per hour depends on how many dispatches you get, your idle time, and your expenses.5Taxi & Limousine Commission. Driver Pay for Drivers
Checking a Trip and Filing a Complaint
The TLC publishes a Driver Pay Calculator you can use to run the formula on any individual trip and compare the result to what the platform actually paid.5Taxi & Limousine Commission. Driver Pay for Drivers If the payment falls short, email DriverProtection@tlc.nyc.gov with the trip details. The commission investigates individual complaints and also audits platform trip records on its own, so underpayments can surface even without a driver filing.
Review your trip-level pay data after any rate change takes effect. A platform can update on the correct date and still apply the wrong utilization divisor or miss a new figure on certain trip types. The errors are usually small per trip, which is exactly why they add up across hundreds of rides before anyone catches them.
How the Rates Change Over Time
The TLC reviews the rates periodically and adjusts both components. Inflation adjustments use the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania metro area.3New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. Notice of Promulgation The per-mile rate is also adjusted for vehicle operating costs like fuel, insurance, and maintenance, which can move independently of general inflation. The rates have been raised multiple times since the original 2018 rules, so the numbers above are current as of March 2026 and should be verified against the TLC’s published rate page before relying on them for an older or future trip.