The article is making an assertion that isn't supported by the facts they themselves cite. They say that "Buzzfeed found that drivers in Detroit, Houston, and Denver “earned less than an average of $13.25 an hour after expenses”"
If that is true then Uber isn't under paying their drivers at all. They are paying them at a slightly above average rate. You can easily look up the average salary for a Taxi / Limo driver in the US on the BLS website[0] and you will find that the national mean hourly wage for this job is $12.53. They also have data by state.
Now, a couple years ago Uber was running adds on Facebook to recruit drivers in average cost of living areas that said things like "Make $70,000 a year driving for Uber". Those were clearly misleading if not outright false when the average taxi driver makes $27k. Perhaps that is where the narrative that they are underpaid comes from.
If that is true then Uber isn't under paying their drivers at all. They are paying them at a slightly above average rate. You can easily look up the average salary for a Taxi / Limo driver in the US on the BLS website[0] and you will find that the national mean hourly wage for this job is $12.53. They also have data by state.
Now, a couple years ago Uber was running adds on Facebook to recruit drivers in average cost of living areas that said things like "Make $70,000 a year driving for Uber". Those were clearly misleading if not outright false when the average taxi driver makes $27k. Perhaps that is where the narrative that they are underpaid comes from.
[0] http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes533041.htm