On Friday, a superior court in California struck down Proposition 22, California’s controversial, course-setting labor law. Passed via the most expensive ballot measure in American history last fall, Prop 22 carved out a third category for gig workers, neither employees nor freelancers, to subvert the state’s 2019 AB-5 legislation that classified gig workers as traditional employees and conferred upon them all the rights and protections of formal employment. For $220 million, Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash eliminated AB-5 protections, and set a new standard for states nationwide. Prop 22–style standards are on the march in Illinois, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.
Already, gig workers had run into plenty of high-profile problems with the standard that Prop 22 set. According to a recent report from National Equity Atlas, only 10 percent of drivers were receiving the promised and celebrated health stipends, with nearly three times as many drivers currently on Medi-Cal and getting no stipend at all. Prices have skyrocketed despite assurances that they wouldn’t; wages, which one study pegged at $5.64 an hour, have gone down for many despite commitments that they’d go up. As The New Republic’s Jacob Silverman pointed out, “40 percent of people who voted ‘yes’ on the measure—that is, who voted in favor of the industry’s position—thought they were ‘ensuring Uber/Lyft and DoorDash employees can earn livable wages.’”
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