How much does a driver earn in the US by hour: what is the average salary?
People need to get around but don’t always have the means to do so necessitating a driver. But how much can one expect to make ferrying people around?
Ride-hailing services, either to ferry people from point A to B or deliver goods to people where they are, can be essential for those who don’t have the means to get around on their own. The amount you can make as a driver depends on which type you are and in which part of the US you work. Here we’ll take a look at what you can expect to earn based on the available data.
How much does a driver earn in US?
There are several categories of drivers in the US including those who drive taxis or limousines, rideshare drivers, bus drivers (school, transit and intercity), shuttle drivers and chauffeurs. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the average annual salary in 2021 was $37,540. That breaks down to a little more than 18 dollars per hour.
However, at the high end are those who drive buses either for city transit or intercity services with a median salary of $48,620. At the low end were taxi drivers who earned on average $29,310 per year. Most drivers work full-time ferrying people around but part-time work is common in the industry.
How much do rideshare drivers make?
Rideshare or ride-hail companies such as Lyft and Uber for getting people from point A to B or Doordash and Uber Eats for food deliver have become ubiquitous in many parts of the nation. Both services were heavily impacted by the pandemic, one for the worse the other for the better.
Now both are seeing inflation and high gas prices take a bite out of their bottom line. Likewise, new regulations at the federal and state level will change how drivers operate in the future, which could have an impact on earnings for drivers.
Drivers delivering goods on average earn less than those who pick up people to get them where they need to go. A deliver driver can expect around $34,771 on average, or slightly less than $17 per hour according to Zippia.
But the range is anywhere from $22,000 per year at the low end to $53,000 annually for the top 10 percent of earners. You can check Zippia’s calculator to see what the going rate is for your area.
An Uber driver on the other hand can make roughly $20 per hour on average, or $41,600 per year according to Salary.com. But the amount that you get paid varies on which city you live in. For example drivers in Washington State, effective 31 December 2022, will be guaranteed a minimum of $3 per trip and $1.17 per mile.
Seattle, which has its own minimum pay requirement, rideshare drivers will be guaranteed $1.65 a mile more than double what a driver gets in California under the prevailing rate according to CNBC. New York City is the only other metropolitan area that currently has a minimum driver pay rate for high-volume for-hire services.