California classified gig economy workers as full employees when it approved Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) in September 2019. The state determined that employed Uber and Lyft drivers were qualified under California law for the same protections offered employees. Last August, the San Francisco Superior Court found that Uber and Lyft had broken the law by continuing to classify their workers as contractors.
By approving Prop 22, California voters gave Uber and Lyft drivers, as well as their counterparts Instacart and DoorDash, access to health benefits and insurance policy plans. At the same time, they permanently classified these workers as hired and denied them the protections they would have obtained as full-time employees of these companies. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart spent more than $ 200 million on building support for Prop 22, and it worked. In the first polls, 40% of people who shared that they voted yes to the measure said they did so because they thought they were helping workers in the giant economy to guarantee a decent wage. Aside from the California supreme court that overturned the measure, lawmakers are unlikely to be able to do anything about the measure, since one of its main provisions states that a seven-eighth legislative majority is needed to change it.