Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the Democratic midterm election win sent a "very clear message" about the economic pressures weighing on American consumers, pointing to inflation as a central source of voter frustration. Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box, he argued that the message reflects a longer-running imbalance between prices and paychecks rather than a single policy issue.
Khosrowshahi said wages have failed to keep pace with rising prices since the 2008 financial crisis. He argued that returns on capital have climbed sharply over the past 20 years, while returns on labor have not risen comparably. In his view, that gap is a key reason many households feel financially squeezed even as the broader economy continues to grow, and he suggested that the people most affected are those who depend on earnings from work rather than investments.
He also raised concerns about artificial intelligence, saying the technology may replace human labor and that this possibility is worrying workers. He framed the question as one that businesses and policymakers will have to confront as automation expands, and he did not offer a specific timeline for when such disruption might occur.
On taxation, Khosrowshahi said it is unbalanced that capital gains are taxed at lower rates than income. He was careful to present these as his own opinions rather than political positions, stating that he is not a politician. He said he would leave decisions about tax direction to those in power, limiting his remarks to a description of the structure as he sees it.
Khosrowshahi has led Uber since 2017, when he succeeded co-founder Travis Kalanick. He previously led the online travel company Expedia. Uber relies heavily on independent contractors, employing millions of drivers and couriers who are not classified as traditional employees, a model that has long been at the center of debates over worker pay and protections. His comments on labor returns therefore touch directly on the workforce that powers the company's business.
The remarks came alongside the company's third-quarter results. Uber reported revenue of $14.8 billion, up 10 percent from a year earlier, and operating income of $1.4 billion, up 30 percent. The company also said it expects about 700 fully driverless vehicles to be operating on its platform by year-end, an indication of how quickly its autonomous vehicle plans are advancing and of the technology question Khosrowshahi raised about labor.
Taken together, the interview placed the chief executive of one of the country's largest gig-economy platforms in the middle of a national debate over affordability, wages and automation. His account links consumer anger at the polls to structural questions about who benefits from economic growth, a theme that Uber's own growth figures and autonomous vehicle plans bring into sharp focus.