Unpacking Uber and Lyft’s Predatory Take Rates

Dan Ocampo

Fact Sheet May 19, 2025

*This factsheet was updated in July 2025.

In 2024, the average Uber driver earned less than they had the prior year, while working more.[1] Lyft drivers worked fewer hours in 2024, but earned 14 percent less than they had in 2023.[2] Both companies regularly paid drivers wages less than the applicable minimum wage, while at the same time increasing consumer prices by over 7 percent.[3]

The disconnect between driver wages and consumer fares raises an important question: What cut of a passenger’s Uber or Lyft fare actually goes to drivers? It’s a question only Uber or Lyft can answer definitively because only they have access to wage data for all of their drivers—data they have consistently refused to disclose. But new survey data, driver reporting, and corporate earnings statements give us a much better sense of Uber & Lyft’s “take rates.”

In short, both companies take around 40 percent on average, and sometimes 65 or 70 percent on individual rides, many times more than they used to take only a few years ago. Data from a recent study show that Uber’s take rate is now 42 percent, up from 32 percent before the company’s switch to “upfront pricing”—their new system of AI-powered algorithmic wage-setting.[4]

In July 2025, Congress introduced legislation, called the Empowering App-Based Workers Act, that would create more transparency for app-based workers—including increased transparency around take rates.

Download our factsheet to learn how this bill will increase transparency for app-based workers and create a federal cap on Uber and Lyft’s take rates.