By Harry Elworthy, Staff Policy Scientist, and Sehar Noor, Sr. Public Policy Associate
Seattle now has the highest rideshare prices in the country. In 2020, lawmakers passed the Fare Share pay standard with the goal of boosting driver pay and setting a new model for gig worker protections. Instead, the policy has only deepened the city’s affordability crisis, hurting riders, drivers, and the city’s pandemic recovery efforts:
- Riders are paying more. Before the regulations, Seattle fares were in line with the U.S. average. Immediately after the regulations, fares jumped by more than 40%.
- Drivers are earning less. Higher prices have cut demand so sharply that drivers now earn less per hour than in most major markets.
- Seattle’s pandemic recovery is lagging. At a time when policymakers are working to bring people back downtown, higher costs are discouraging the very trips that support restaurants, small businesses, and nightlife.
At its best, rideshare helps cities move: getting people to work and essential appointments, and bringing them together, while offering drivers flexible, well-paid work on their own terms. These are the activities that keep a city connected and vibrant; the kind of city Seattle leaders say they want to build. But instead of passing balanced regulations and making rideshare a part of its revitalization strategy, the city has priced the service out of reach.
This is the first in a two-part blog post on the ways in which some local governments have pushed regulations that make Uber inaccessible to many, hampering the opportunities and dynamism that Uber can bring to cities. See Part 2 here.
Highest Prices in the Nation
Seattle’s Fare Share pay standard sets extreme minimum rates of $0.68 per minute and $1.59 per mile while on a trip. Under these rates, a typical 20-minute, 5-mile trip must pay at least $21.55 — equivalent to nearly $65 of gross earnings per hour, or triple Seattle’s hourly minimum wage. As we discussed in a 2024 blog post, these requirements were rigidly applied at the trip level and based on inaccurate estimates of driver costs, pushing prices higher than any other market in the country.
These pay rules layer onto other restrictive and expensive regulations. Rideshare drivers in King County must attain a TNC for-hire permit, even though economic research shows that this has no benefit on driver quality. The SeaTac airport charges rideshare users some of the highest airport fees in the country — fees not paid by personal cars, and higher than those charged to taxis. And riders must also pay some combination of a Washington state fee, a Seattle city fee, a Seattle TNC tax, and a King County fee on their trips, all on top of sales taxes. For example, in Part 2 we highlight how these combined fees increase the price of a particular trip to Sea-Tac from $31.74 to $37.20, a 17% increase.
Higher rideshare prices come at a time when the cost of living is a huge issue for many Americans, as persistent inflation and volatile prices for housing, food, and other needs have eaten away at purchasing power.
“I have a child that’s in the NICU at Seattle Children’s … I used Uber to get from the hospital to home to run an errand, and it was extremely expensive. And so we’re trying to find ways around paying that cost, including taking our bikes, which are not great when it’s chilly outside or early in the morning or when it’s dark out. So it’s made it a bit of a safety issue as well.” — Seattle Rider (Parent)
While this impacts everybody in the city, it falls hardest on those with few alternatives. Low-income households in the U.S. have seen higher rates of inflation than higher-income households for almost any period over the past 20 years, and face tough decisions when costs of transportation increase:
“There have been many instances where I opt to walk home in the dark alone instead of calling a car. And that probably isn’t the safest thing, but I’ve never doubted that because I’m not going to pay again the exorbitant amount of money that it costs to get a car to come home.” — Seattle Rider
But it’s not just riders who are hurting.
Fare Share Fails to Deliver for Drivers
Seattle’s pay rules were meant to help drivers. Instead, they’ve pushed prices up and earnings down. As we demonstrated in our previous post, because of the jump in rider prices, Seattle drivers now earn less per hour than in most major U.S. markets. This marks a clear reversal from before Fare Share took effect, when Seattle driver earnings were higher than the U.S. average. Drivers feel this every day:
“I’ve been on the Uber platform for 10 years now. Compared to before the earnings standards and the pandemic, I’m working more hours to earn a similar amount each week. It just isn’t as busy, I used to get rides back-to-back-to-back; that rarely happens anymore. The weekdays are now quiet and I have to make most of my money on the weekends getting folks home safely.” — Kelly C., Seattle Driver
With drivers worse off than they were five years ago, Seattle’s rules have failed. Policies meant to help drivers have instead hurt them. What’s more, these regulations are stalling Seattle’s broader recovery.
A Roadblock to Seattle’s Goals
This situation runs directly counter to the city’s most important priorities. Like many cities in America, the pandemic left Seattle’s downtown a shell of its former self. Downtown Seattle’s worker foot traffic is still just 64% of 2019 levels, and its 37% office vacancy rate is among the highest in the country. Stores remain boarded up, offices are empty, and blocks which used to be bustling with activity at all hours of the day are often empty. Despite major investments under Seattle’s Downtown Activation Plan launched in 2023, the number of downtown visitors in September 2025 was 5% lower than last year.
Seattle leaders are rightly focused on righting this ship, and downtown recovery has been a key pillar of Mayor-elect Katie Wilson’s platform: “Our downtown core and neighborhoods throughout the city have struggled to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. The city must do more to revitalize and activate downtown, as well as support small businesses and neighborhood business districts across Seattle.”
Seattle wants to revitalize its downtown and encourage people to support local restaurants and small businesses. But by making it prohibitively expensive to get downtown, the city is undermining its goal. In Q3 2019, the average trip on Uber from Ballard to Belltown cost just under $14. By the same quarter in 2025, it had climbed to over $31 — a 120% increase far outstripping inflation. This huge price increase has discouraged riders:
“I have reduced going downtown to just socialize and go for dinners and stuff. Because the cost of transportation has increased significantly. That, with the high cost of eating out, does not really make sense for me to take an Uber to go downtown or any other central district to just have a meal.” — Seattle Rider
The data echo these rider experiences: evening and night trips are now just 42% of pre-pandemic levels.
Seattle also wants to solve its affordability crisis. But the web of ridesharing rules and taxes push up the price of transportation, disproportionately burdening those who can least afford it. Instead of expanding affordable, essential mobility, Seattle lawmakers have done the opposite — and continue to push forward new proposals that would further raise costs.
Voters are signaling fatigue. Six in ten voters now say that taxes in Seattle are too high for the level of services the city provides, and half believe that city taxes and regulations are the primary factor or a major factor in Seattle’s high cost of living. The same survey by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce also found that three in four voters agree businesses are closing or leaving the city because the cost of doing business is too high.
The message is clear: Voters want balanced policies that promote affordability, not more regulations that fail to deliver on their promises.
In the next part of this series, we’ll look at how Seattle is an example of a larger phenomenon across the country.
Seattle’s Ridesharing Laws Don’t Work for Anyone was originally published in Uber Under the Hood on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.