MINNEAPOLIS — Rideshare fares will cost you a bit more after a new law setting minimum pay levels for transportation network drivers kicked in on Dec. 1.

The law, passed in May during the 2024 legislative session, pushes minimum pay for drivers who work for Uber, Lyft and similar transportation networks to $1.28 per minute and 31 cents per mile. There is a minimum ride charge of $5. Along with the new minimum rates, the law is designed to provide greater transparency into what customers are charged, increase insurance coverage, and build new partnerships with community organizations to assist and support drivers. 

At the time the law was passed, Uber estimated that passengers would pay 25% more for a ride under the legislation. 

It took a year of task force meetings organized by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) and input from drivers, rideshare users, community and legislative leaders to hammer out the new law, with both Uber and Lyft threatening to pull out of the state if even higher pay rates mandated by the Minneapolis City Council would have taken hold. 

“[Transportation Network Company] drivers and stakeholders showed up to advocate and the result was new legislation that increased driver benefits and protections,” said Nicole Blissenbach, DLI commissioner. “Our agency is now working to educate drivers and work with the TNCs, so the law works as intended.”

Among the requirements and features of the new law:

• To ensure drivers earn the minimum compensation rate, every 14 days, TNCs will review individual trip and earnings records. If a driver did not meet the minimum rate of pay over that time period, the TNC will provide a supplemental payment to make up the difference. All tips belong to the driver and are not counted toward the minimum compensation rate.
• TNCs will pay drivers an additional 91 cents a minute if they drive a wheelchair-accessible vehicle to encourage more accessible rides. 
• Companies will provide drivers with a trip receipt within 24 hours of a completed trip, and weekly summaries that include the driver’s total earnings before tips, total trip time, miles, total fares and fees paid by passengers, and the driver’s total time on the TNC’s app.

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry retains enforcement authority to ensure minimum compensation rates and pay transparency provisions aren’t met. 

Additional information on the rideshare compensation law is available on the DLI website. 

A comprehensive study of transportation network drivers by the DLI in 2023 determined that most rideshare drivers are persons of color, and more than half are immigrants. That study recommended 89 cents per mile and 49 cents per minute would be roughly equivalent to the state minimum wage plus some of the driver’s work-related expenses. 

But the Minneapolis City Council, acting without state input, passed an ordinance that would’ve guaranteed drivers $1.41 per mile plus 51 cents per minute and other benefits.  Uber and Lyft both issued warnings that they would leave Minneapolis – and likely the state –  if that ordinance went into effect.

The council eventually rescinded that ordinance in early May after striking a compromise with state lawmakers on increases to transportation network company driver compensation. 

RELATED: Minneapolis Council takes down ride share ordinance

MINNEAPOLIS — Snowflakes are falling but for true fans, it’s never too early to think about baseball season. 

The Minnesota Twins announced that tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday for all 2025 home events – regular season games at Target Field, spring training games in Fort Myers and TwinsFest. 

The 2025 season will include 81 games at Target Field from April through late September. The home opener will be on April 3 against the Houston Astros. 

Single-game tickets will go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. If you plan on going to three or more Twins games, consider purchasing a holiday pack of tickets to get a complimentary Twins tree ornament. 

The Twins will host 17 home games at Lee Health Sports Complex in Fort Myers, Fla. between Feb. 22 and March 25 as the club preps for the regular season. For more information on these games, click here. 

This annual fan event will take place Jan. 24-25 and feature more than 40 current and former Twins including Carlos Correa, Pablo López, Griffin Jax, Bailey Ober, Bert Blyleven and more. 

Fans will experience live music, autograph stations and a youth clinic for aspiring Twins players. Check it out at this link. 

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Did you enjoy a nice, juicy bird this Thanksgiving?

You can thank folks like Loren Brey.

“This is my 35th year working in the turkey business,” Brey said. “We sell just under 3 million fertile eggs a year, employ between 8 and 9 full time people.”

Last November –  almost a year ago to the day – the re-emergence of the bird flu threatened to bring down the whole thing.

“We lost probably about 15,000 breeder hens,” Brey said. “The first flock that broke here, we just started them, we had a handful of eggs. And I remember that morning when the USDA crew came to euthanize the rest of them he told me ‘You don’t have to be here, you don’t have to watch this.’ It was tough.”

With the outbreak growing, farmers were looking for anything to mitigate the spread. The Bird Control Group has come up with an idea straight out of a spy film: lasers.

Representative Craig Duhr said it all started with a simple idea in the Netherlands in 2012.

“Literally a guy messing around with a green laser light and moved it over some birds and the birds moved,” Duhr said. 

Since then, the company’s global reach has expanded, and the technology has evolved.

Duhr explained how it works.

“Green is the brightest spectrum of light the birds see in. So we as humans will see a green dot out there during the daytime hours. The birds see a whole beam – like a laser beam. And they perceive that as they move through the field or a rooftop or the vineyards as a threat. Something coming at them as a predator. So they want to take flight and get out of that area.”

The group has been working with Minnesota farmers to install the technology. The state meanwhile is offering grants – up to $10,000 per farming operation – to help with the cost.

“Right now, I have five lasers running at roughly $15,000 a laser,” he said. 

Brey said it’s working. In fact, he’s having more success with it than any other mitigation strategy he’s tried.

“I would say it’s keeping 70 plus percent of the local birds and migratory birds away from the farm,” Brey said. “In the past, what I’ve noticed is under my eaves or in the trees I would see bird nests. I don’t see any of that anymore. So in my mind it’s been a success.”

For now, there’s hope that these high-tech, laser-beam scarecrows continue to do their job.

“We’ve been seeing some good results with it. Is it 100% the answer? No, of course not. But it’s another tool in our toolbox that is helping us.”