California Drivers Earned $34 Per Hour on Average, a University of California, Riverside Study on App-Based Work Finds

Report Includes Regional Earnings Data from the State’s Major Metropolitan Regions

A new study released today by the UCR School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting and Development finds that California app-based drivers grossed average earnings of $34.46 per hour on rides and delivery including tips in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 26% over the last two years.

Additionally, the study found that since the passage of Proposition 22, which classified app-based drives as independent contractors, a majority of rideshare and delivery drivers in California report that they are satisfied working with app-based platforms, value scheduling flexibility, and value the ability to earn supplemental income.

Among the study’s main findings:

• From the fourth quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, there were approximately 1,370,000 drivers who performed at least one ride or delivery across the DoorDash, Instacart, Lyft, and Uber platforms in California.
• Including tips, gross app-based driver earnings across California averaged $34.46 per active hour in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 26% compared to $27.34 two years prior (in the third quarter of 2019).
• From the fourth quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, driver earnings in California totaled $4.3 billion across the four platforms included in the study.
• 82% of California app-based drivers report being satisfied with their association with the platforms examined in the study.
• 75% of California app-based drivers prefer their status as independent contractors.
• As of the third quarter of 2021, two-thirds of drivers drive with a given platform for fewer than 5 hours per week.

The study explores who California’s app-based drivers are, how they use app-based services, how much they earn, and their level of satisfaction with this type of work. To conduct the analysis, UC Riverside researchers from CEFD used anonymized data provided by the four major rideshare and delivery platforms in California—Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash. The researchers also performed an independent analysis of a survey of more than 1,500 California app-based drivers conducted by EMC Research, a public opinion research firm.

“This study represents a detailed investigation of recent driver earnings, satisfaction, and overall preferences,” said Taner Osman, Research Manager at the UCR Center for Forecasting and one of the report’s authors. “Our analysis indicates that driver earnings increased significantly across the state over the past two years, and that most drivers want to remain independent contractors because of the flexibility and independence it offers.”

The report also details driver earnings across each of California’s metropolitan statistical areas.

Demographically, the study finds that app-based drivers tend to skew more male and have often attained a higher level of education compared to traditional workers in California. More than 30% of the app-based drivers surveyed have bachelor’s degrees, compared to slightly over 20% in the general workforce.

View the full analysis here.