When staff learned hours before the general public that HOURCAR would be shutting down, they faced the loss of their income, the loss of their transportation, and the loss of the carshare system they had worked so hard on.

The Member Services and Fleet staff, in particular, were absolutely essential to HOURCAR’s functioning, performing the daily work to keep the cars and members organized and operating smoothly. The Member Services team answered every email and every call that came into HOURCAR, no matter the hour, and the Fleet team kept the cars clean and charged, no matter the weather.

Unfortunately, these essential teams were also paid the lowest of all HOURCAR staff, with few of them making a living wage. Most of the Fleet and Member Services staff made below $50,000 annually, placing them below the estimated living wage for the Twin Cities metro area. Most recent Fleet staff positions were posted for $16-18/hour, with new Member Services staff starting at $19-20.90/hour (the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development puts the necessary hourly wage to meet the cost of living at $20.40 for the seven-county metro area).

Many of these staff worked at HOURCAR for years, often living paycheck to paycheck, but showing up to work every day because they deeply valued the mission to make transportation more equitable and sustainable. They watched as the monthly bonuses that had previously been offered for excellent work disappeared as HOURCAR began to struggle financially. They watched as their coworkers were laid off or quit, and when there weren’t the funds to rehire for those positions, they added more and more to their workload. Neither the low pay or the intense work were specific to HOURCAR, but that didn't make it any easier for these hardworking-staff to live off of a less-than living wage, and it certainly didn't contribute to having the savings to handle suddenly losing one's job and health insurance.

As of October 17th, all HOURCAR staff are out of a job, and none of them will be paid severance, nor are they eligible for COBRA. For those who had not been making a living wage, this is a huge financial blow on top of an already unstable foundation. This fund is meant to offer a little bit of an emergency financial cushion to the former HOURCAR staff who were making below a living wage and have lost their jobs in the past two months.

The funds raised here will be distributed evenly among those people when this fundraiser closes on 11/15/26 via each individual’s preferred method of receiving those funds, and the money will be theirs to spend on whatever expenses they need to in the wake of losing their source of income. I am hosting this fundraiser on behalf of HOURCAR’s former DEI Committee—which I was a member of during the 3.5 years I worked at HOURCAR—to support my former coworkers who have all lost their jobs.

If you have a few dollars to thank the Fleet and Member Services staff who kept HOURCAR operational and helped you get where you needed to go, thank you.