What is the Empowering App-Based Workers Act?

Legislation Securing Transparency & Accountability for Workers

People working for ridehail and delivery giants like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Amazon are tired of being at the mercy of hidden bosses and watching their pay drop as profits rise.[1]

These corporations use invisible algorithms to decide in real time who gets to work and when, and for how much. With their extensive surveillance data, they can offer different assignments and pay to make sure no worker earns more than the least they’ll accept.[2]

App-based workers don’t know how these decisions are made, but ridehail drivers know they are earning less, riders are paying more, and corporations are taking a bigger cut of the customer fare (their “take-rate”).[3]

The Empowering App-Based Workers Act seeks to:

• Require detailed weekly pay statements and itemized receipts;
• Empower workers to find out how companies make decisions about their pay, work assignments, and discipline;
• Allow workers to choose trusted organizations and allies to receive and help them understand data and information about algorithms used to determine work assignments, pay, and discipline;
• Guarantee ridehail drivers 75 percent of each passenger fare;
• Require equal pay for equal work;
• Provide strong enforcement, allowing workers to receive money damages.

Pay information companies must disclose to workers, consumers, and regulators:

• Worker pay, with any tips listed separately;
• Amount paid by the consumer;
• Take-rate: i.e., percentage of passenger fare not paid to driver (for ridehail); and
• Total time spent working.

Tell your members of Congress to listen to app-based workers’ demands and support the bill.

Organizations Endorsing the Bill

• ACE Collaborative of New Virginia Majority
• Action Center on Race and Economy
• AFL-CIO
• Athena
• Center for Law and Social Policy
• Color Of Change
• Colorado Independent Drivers United
• Connecticut Drivers United
• Coworker
• Data & Society
• Drivers Union Washington/Teamsters Local 117
• Economic Policy Institute
• Fair Work Center
• Groundwork Collaborative
• Hawai’i Workers Center
• Los Deliveristas Unidos
• Make the Road New Jersey
• Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association
• National Partnership for Women & Families
• National Women’s Law Center Action Fund
• GLOW
• NY Taxi Workers Alliance
• Open Markets Institute
• Portland Drivers United
• PowerSwitch Action
• Rideshare Drivers United
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• Tech Equity Collaborative
• Tennessee Drivers Union
• The People’s Lobby
• Towards Justice
• United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
• Working Washington

Endnotes

[1] Moore, Nicole, “Make Misclassification a Violation of the FLSA,” National Employment Law Project, October 24, 2023, https://www.nelp.org/make-misclassification-a-violation-of-the-flsa.

[2] Prohibiting Surveillance Prices and Wages (AI Now Institute, et al., 2025), https://ainowinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Real-Surveillance-Prices-and-Wages-Report.pdf. See also: The Gig Trap: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US (Human Rights Watch, 2025), https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/05/12/the-gig-trap/algorithmic-wage-and-labor-exploitation-in-platform-work-in-the-us.

[3] Uber’s Inequality Machine: Data on How AI-Driven Pay is Harming Workers and What We Can Do to Push Back (Gig Workers Rising, PowerSwitch Action, 2025), https://www.datocms-assets.com/64990/1752622539-ubers-inequality-machine-07152025.pdf.