Drivers for app-based companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash will remain independent contractors in California after the state’s voters approved Proposition 22, according to unofficial elections results.
About 58 percent of voters said “yes” to Prop 22, which classifies drivers as contractors rather than employees, who typically receive more benefits than contractors.
Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash supported the measure, while labor organizations, teachers and firefighters opposed the measure.
As of early Wednesday morning, 82.6 percent of precincts had at least partially reported, according to the California Secretary of State’s office. Results will be final no later than Dec. 11.
Drivers for app-based companies get some benefits as contractors, according to the measure, including 120 percent of the local minimum wage for each hour they drive, excluding time spent waiting.
For drivers who typically work more than 15 hours per week, app-based companies would provide help with health insurance. Prop 22 also requires app-based companies to pay medical costs and cover some lost income if a driver suffers an injury on the job.
And it limits drivers to no more than 12 hours working in a 24-hour period for a single app-based firm.
California recently enacted a law limiting businesses ability to hire independent contractors. Prop 22 removes those limits from drivers for ride-hailing and delivery companies.
So…unions write AB5…every union corrupted democrat politician votes for it…every Republican votes against it…it goes into effect because this is a one party state….every Independent Contractor screams bloody murder…the democrats are forced to write exemptions…but they specifically exclude rideshare ICs…requiring those Independent Contractors to spend hundreds of millions to bring it to a public vote…rideshare overwhelming wins. Leading to the question: Who the hell is voting for these union corrupted democrats who pass legislation that the public is stridently against?
AB5 is a garbage bill that had a negative, broad impact on way too many LEGITIMATE independent contractors. It’s absurd that a SECOND bill, AB 2257, had to be written (at tax-payer expense) to exempt freelance journalists, musicians, etc. I agree with your sentiment on how ridiculous this is.
HOWEVER, the rideshare “Independent Contractors” you mentioned didn’t spend a DIME on this campaign. The BILLION-DOLLAR companies (Uber, Lyft, etc.) spent millions on misleading ads to fool the average Californian voter into passing this prop.
For months, I sided with Uber. Gig work isn’t supposed to be a “real job”. It’s supplemental. The reality, tho, is that a majority of drivers, mostly immigrants, are working over 30 hours a week for companies that have specific REQUIREMENTS (must have 2005 or newer 4-door vehicle with no cosmetic damage & must display Uber decal, for example). If they were truly “IC’s”, they should be allowed to use whatever legal means of transportation to get customer from Point A to Point B. I have other arguments against Prop 22, but the decision has been made, so I will refrain unless asked in the comments here.
Lastly, to my fellow neighbor reading this, regardless of how you feel about employees vs contractors, think about how these billion-dollar companies were basically able to BUY legislation. They had the lawyers to draft it up, the money to campaign, and they WON in the end. This proposition was corporate-sponsored. It wasn’t about health, or taxes, or reform – it was all about profit.
Labor unions are some of the most corrupt and vile organizations in the United States today. There’s absolutely no reason on Earth why a laborer at a construction site should make $40 an hour. The amount of lobbying they do and trouble they cause is unfathomable. Witness all the drama with the new housing and rehabilitation of the Concord naval weapons station. give the bidding to a non-union contractor and things would get done a lot more easily and smoothly.
The company’s spent well over a 100 million dollars to not pay their employees benefits and a decent wage. How honorable for the voters to deny them that. The only reason I can think they might do that is that they still want cheap taxi rides and thousands of more cars clogging are already saturated roads. Go figure…
Do you work gig jobs? If not, how honorable for you to weigh in with nothing on the line about other people’s livelihood. AB5 is a disaster, and almost torturous in a pandemic. Soundly defeated by crazy CA voters, they got this one right.
A gig job is a gig job — people who work those kinds of jobs choose their own hours, including start, end, and total time. They are also supposed to set their own rates or agree to standard rate through a service. I work with 16 independent contractors, some of whom CHOOSE work 12 hour days and they like it like that and pay their own insurance. If Uber and Lyft drivers want benefits and breaks, they need to work a job where they are an employee.
Many of the Uber and Lift drivers wanted to remain independent contractors.
For many it is a second job they can do as their time allows. No one can tell when to show up or how many hours they have to work. While I generally agree that many big companies don’t treat their employee’s well, I understand the model of Uber and Lift and why many of the drivers want to be independent as opposed to have someone tell them when to work. If it had passed and Uber and Lift had made demands as to time and hours on their drivers I believe many for whom it is a second job would have to quit.
The problem is not with unions but with a state legislature that is ruled by a single party and legislators that don’t care and have no incentive to debate and write good laws that benefit all.
Perhaps the minority Party needs to understand that nobody likes their policies and THEY need to change to attract voters. Continuing with stupid archaic policies that are meant to hurt people does not attract Californians, we aren’t stupid. If we were we would have voted for Trump. So much crying from the right, it’s a wonder how we ever have a drought with all those tears.
Downtown WC resident: well said. Ab5 was a BS legislation, and prop 22 was trying to put a Band-Aid on something that needed to be gutted entirely.
Abolish ab5 and prop 22 problem solved.
living under California government for 35 years really makes me hate government.
‘govern’ means = to control.
‘ment’ means = mind
The government that governs best is the government that governs least.
Government’s job is not to control the people, it’s to ensure the rights of the people stay intact, Anything after that is not the job of the government.
Good this opens the door to the repeal of AB5.