This is called paying them, and occurs even in the absense of tips. Tips give people the second option of not subsidizing the corporation; were tips removed, everyone would be forced to subsidize equally. This is to the business' disadvantage only because some people are willing to pay more when it is in the form of a tip then the corporation could ask the rest of their market to pay.
You think of Uber as the employer, and yourself as a mere customer, but it is just as apt to think of yourself as the employer and the driver as your employee. If we do so, the money Uber gives the driver, as well as any tips you provide, become the employee's wage. From here we see you are paying them an unlivable wage, and should be scolded the same as any employer doing the same.
Tipping is actually to nobody's advantage. It's inconvenient for the customer, sets incentives for the waiter that aren't always in line with what's best for the restaurant as a whole and introduce unpredictability for the wait staff.
You don't get to set the minimum wage, and perhaps have difficulty determining the precise wage without tips, but tips allow you to choose the maximum wage. If you knew $5 of what you paid Uber would go towards the driver for a 20 minute ride, that they had to spend a dollar of that on gasoline, and perhaps that they would need an extra 10 minutes to get home, you could estimate they earned $8 an hour. If you deemed this too small, you could tip them $2 to bring it up to $12 an hour.
Naturally, without everyone doing the same, they would not notice the effect. However this does not constitute justification for not doing your part.
Uber should pay it, yes, but they aren't. Further, not paying it is unlikely to make them go under - in fact the reverse. Charging more, or giving more to the drivers, will take away from their profits. Conversely, not paying their drivers enough will at worst cost them drivers moving to Lyft. Until this is a problem, they won't change.
The only parties that take advantage of the driver are Uber and yourself; if Uber is unwilling to take up the mantle of proper pay then the responsibility falls on you. The question becomes: does the driver have a right to be payed properly? Or, in other words, if the driver is willing to work for a lower pay, do you have a responsibility to pay them more? Some would argue that it's a free market, and that if they don't like the pay, they should find a different job. If you believe in a minimum wage however, you should make sure that all those under your service recieve a reasonable wage.
This is called paying them, and occurs even in the absense of tips. Tips give people the second option of not subsidizing the corporation; were tips removed, everyone would be forced to subsidize equally. This is to the business' disadvantage only because some people are willing to pay more when it is in the form of a tip then the corporation could ask the rest of their market to pay.
You think of Uber as the employer, and yourself as a mere customer, but it is just as apt to think of yourself as the employer and the driver as your employee. If we do so, the money Uber gives the driver, as well as any tips you provide, become the employee's wage. From here we see you are paying them an unlivable wage, and should be scolded the same as any employer doing the same.