Proposition 22: What Has Changed, What Has Not

A cheat sheet for your doomscrolling

A taxi driver helps a departing passenger with his luggage in line of taxis at LAX on October 18, 2020. Photo: Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Proposition 22 passed in California on Tuesday. Uber, Lyft, and other gig economy companies spent more than $200 million on the ballot measure, which will allow them to classify drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

Here’s what has changed:

• Gig economy workers in California will be classified as independent contractors. In October, a California court ordered Uber and Lyft to hire their workers as employees under a new state labor law. The ballot measure that passed Tuesday allows Uber and Lyft to continue classifying drivers as independent contractors regardless.
• Gig economy workers will get some benefits. Though meager compared to protections granted to employees, Prop 22 grants gig workers some protections, such as a pay floor.
• A path to union rights for gig economy workers got tougher. Back in 2015, Seattle’s city council granted Uber and Lyft drivers the right to unionize, despite being independent contractors (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce promptly sued the city, arguing the ordinance violated anti-trust law). Prop 22 seems to preempt such a strategy in California, stating that “Any statute that authorizes any entity or organization to represent the interests of app-based drivers…