On September 9, California certified the California Gig Workers Union to represent Uber and Lyft drivers. After years of organizing, drivers finally have someone negotiating on their behalf. That is a real win, and it deserves to be said plainly.
What the union is negotiating for is a contract: one agreement with Uber and Lyft that would set rules on pay, deactivations, and other working conditions for every driver on both apps in the state. That contract doesn't exist yet. Talks aren't expected to start until the end of this year, and the law that created the union gives the process room to run into 2028.
Meanwhile, the pay problem the union was formed to fix isn't waiting. One Sacramento Lyft driver told reporters that a trip to Berkeley that used to pay him $80 now pays about $40. Closer to home, a run to Sacramento International that costs his rider $30 to $40 can leave him about $15.
So two questions are worth asking. What do you earn while you wait? And when a raise does come, who pays for it?
How long until a union contract actually changes your pay?
To be clear: the union already exists. What takes time is its first contract, and any raise that comes with it.
The law behind the union, AB 1340, sets a maximum length for every step once bargaining begins:
| Step | Maximum days |
|---|---|
| Direct negotiation before either side can request mediation | 210 |
| Agreeing on a mediator | 22 |
| Mediation | 75 |
| Arbitrator meets both sides and recommends a deal | 105 |
| Window for the companies to accept the recommendation | 20 |
| State labor board's general counsel reviews the deal | 60 |
| State labor board approves or rejects | 21 |
| Total | 513 days, about 17 months |
These are maximums, not predictions. A deal could come sooner. But if talks open at year-end and every step uses its full window, the final decision lands around spring 2028.
And the ending isn't guaranteed. If Uber and Lyft won't accept the arbitrator's recommended deal, the union can ask the state labor board to approve it without them. The board can approve it or reject it. The first contract could be agreed to by both sides, imposed by the state, or sent back.
Until one of those things happens, every ride you take is paid at today's rate, set by today's algorithm.
Who pays for a raise?
A raise has to come from somewhere. There are only a few places it can come from: the apps' cut, the rider's fare, or both. California has seen this play out before.
When Prop 22 took effect in 2020, it came with new benefits for drivers. Within weeks, Uber added a new per-trip fee for California riders to cover them, and Lyft, DoorDash, and Postmates added fees of their own. The cost of the benefits landed on the rider's receipt.
Meanwhile, the apps' own share kept growing. Columbia Business School's Len Sherman found that Uber's cut of rider fares climbed from about 32% in 2022 to more than 42% by the end of 2024, and his 2026 research put it above 50% in many U.S. cities. His read: Uber has been raising rider prices with or without regulations requiring it.
So if a contract raises driver pay, the most likely place it shows up is a higher fare for the rider. And higher fares ripple. Fewer people request rides. More riders try alternatives, and in Sacramento, one of those alternatives is now a Waymo with no one in the front seat. Fewer rides split among the same number of drivers can quietly eat a raise.
None of that means the union shouldn't fight. It means a better rate on the apps is still a rate on the apps.
A better deal on the apps vs. a business of your own
These aren't two versions of the same thing. They're different categories.
| Factor | Your own private clients | Union contract on Uber and Lyft |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the fare | You | Negotiated, then applied by the algorithm |
| Who decides who gets in your car | You and your client | The app |
| Who can end the relationship | You or your client | The app, with a better appeals process if the union wins one |
| When it starts | This week | Possibly 2027 or 2028 |
| Who pays for the improvement | Nobody. You're the one setting the price | Likely riders, through higher fares |
The union can improve the terms of driving for Uber and Lyft. Private clients change who you're driving for. Apples and oranges.
What can you start this week?
Your own client list: riders who book you directly, at a price you set.
You don't need to pitch anyone. Riders are already asking. Prices spike, drivers cancel, and a different stranger shows up every time. What a lot of riders actually want is simple: one reliable driver they know will show up. When a rider asks, "Can I just book you directly?", you can finally say yes.
And some of the best clients never come from the apps at all.
One HUM driver in Phoenix left his card with the service manager at the motorcycle dealership where he used to work. When a customer's bike had to stay in the shop overnight, the dealership sent that customer to him instead of to an app. His best client came the same way: a regular of his mentioned him to a friend whose husband was tired of unreliable app rides. Two days later, the husband called to set up his airport runs. Now he books that driver for everything.
That driver started with two private clients. His phone now holds 175, and 40 book him every month. He books every one of those rides through the HUM Driver app, so each ride is logged and covered.
His advice to new drivers is always the same: "It starts with a conversation."
Do the math on the next 17 months
Path one: wait
Keep driving the apps at the current split. Hope the contract, whenever it arrives, moves your number, and that higher fares don't shrink the rides you get.
Path two: start now, and keep the apps on
Private rides on HUM average $50 to $60 per ride. You set the fare, and there's no platform commission. Picture one regular client who flies out and back twice per month. That's four rides per month, or $200 to $240 per month from one person. Over the next 17 months, that's $3,400 to $4,080.
That's one client. Now think about how many riders you already know who would rather book you than roll the dice on an app.
Illustration based on HUM's average private fare of $50 to $60 per ride. Individual results vary.
Do you have to choose between the union and your own clients?
No. The union bargains with Uber and Lyft over the work you do on their apps. Your private clients are a separate business you run alongside it.
You don't have to quit anything. Most HUM drivers keep Uber and Lyft on while they build. As private clients grow, app rides take up less of the week. Not because anyone walked away, but because the private rides pay better and the driver chose them.
Going private also doesn't mean going off the books. HUM lets you drive private clients legally, and every ride you log is covered. HUM holds a Transportation Network Company permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, and HUM's commercial auto policy covers every private ride you log in the HUM Driver app. That's the difference between a private client business and a cash ride.
The contract is coming. Your clients don't have to wait for it.
The union is fighting to improve what the apps pay you, and riders will likely foot the bill. Your client list is what you pay yourself. One doesn't have to wait on the other.
By the time the first contract is final, you could have 10, 20, or 40 riders who book you by name, at a rate you set. That list starts with one conversation, maybe with the rider who asked last week, maybe with someone you already know.