THE
GIG.
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates responded by spending $205 million on a single ballot initiative — Proposition 22 — to exempt themselves from AB5. The $205M was the largest amount ever spent on a California ballot measure by a factor of two. For reference: California's entire 2020 public education ballot measure campaign raised $12M.
They won. 58% of California voters approved Prop 22, exempting gig companies from employee classification requirements. The workers who would have received the benefits were not consulted. They were the subject of the campaign, not participants in it.
A California appeals court later ruled Prop 22 was unconstitutional. The companies appealed. The California Supreme Court reinstated Prop 22 in 2024. The workers are still contractors.
| WHAT THEY SAY | WHAT IT MEANS |
|---|---|
| "You're an independent contractor with flexibility." | You have no minimum wage. You pay both sides of Social Security. You have no unemployment insurance. You have no workers' comp if you get hit by a car on the job. |
| "You set your own hours." | The app decides when surge pricing activates, which zones are profitable, and when demand is low enough that working is pointless. You choose from the options the algorithm offers. |
| "You are your own boss." | The app sets the fare. The app sets the route. The app rates your performance. The app deactivates you. A boss with a name and a face you can talk to has more accountability than an algorithm with no appeals process. |
| "Drivers prefer the flexibility." | Surveys of gig workers consistently show the top requested improvement is pay stability, not schedule flexibility. The flexibility framing was developed by communications consultants, not derived from worker feedback. |
| "We empower entrepreneurs." | An entrepreneur sets their price. An Uber driver cannot set their price. They take the price the app offers or they decline the ride. Declining too many rides affects their standing. There is no entrepreneurship here. There is piece-rate labor without the labor protections. |
| "Prop 22 gives drivers new benefits." | Prop 22 offered earnings guarantees and healthcare subsidies — only while "engaged time" (actively on a trip) exceeds a threshold. Waiting for rides does not count. Most drivers never reach the threshold. The benefits exist on paper and rarely in practice. |
The earnings display in the Uber and DoorDash driver apps shows gross earnings — before expenses. The expenses are yours. A 2018 MIT study calculated median earnings for rideshare drivers at $3.37/hour after expenses at the low end. Later studies, controlling for more variables, estimated $6-8/hour. Federal minimum wage is $7.25. Fifteen states have $15 minimums.
Vehicle depreciation: −$5.40/hr (IRS rate: $0.67/mi @ ~8mi/hr avg)
Gas: −$2.80/hr
Self-employment tax: −$2.54/hr (15.3% both sides)
Insurance gap: −$1.20/hr (personal policy may not cover commercial)
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Net: $6.06/hr
Gig workers can be deactivated — effectively fired — by the app with no explanation and no formal appeals process. A low rating from a passenger, a disputed complaint, an algorithm flag. The account goes dark. The income stops. There is no HR. There is no union. There is no grievance procedure because there is no employment relationship.
Uber's deactivation policy has been challenged in courts repeatedly. In markets where drivers won employment status (UK, 2021 — UK Supreme Court ruled Uber drivers are workers), the company was required to provide minimum wage, holiday pay, and pension contributions retroactively. Uber complied in the UK. In the US, Prop 22 holds.
Uber executives discussed using "violence" against drivers in France as a lobbying tool. Uber's then-CEO Travis Kalanick on a French crackdown: "I think it's worth it."
Uber lobbied officials in at least 40 countries, cultivated relationships with politicians including then-VP Biden, and used what internal documents called a "kill switch" to prevent regulators from accessing driver data during raids in multiple cities.
The kill switch was a system designed to cut off local servers when authorities arrived. It was used in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Montreal, Hong Kong, and India. This is obstruction of regulatory oversight, engineered as a product feature.
Uber went public in 2019 at a $75.5 billion valuation. DoorDash went public in 2020 at $39 billion. Instacart went public in 2023. The venture capital firms that backed these companies — Benchmark, SoftBank, Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz — made billions on these exits.
The model that generated those valuations was built on labor that did not appear on the balance sheet as a labor cost. The cars are the workers' cars. The insurance risk is partially the workers' risk. The fuel is the workers' fuel. The depreciation is the workers' depreciation. The platform captured the value. The workers absorbed the cost. The investors captured the exit.
DoorDash's S-1 filing (2020) disclosed that the company had never been profitable. It was valued at $39 billion. The valuation was based on market share and growth trajectory — both of which depended on driver supply that would not exist at full labor cost. The business model's profitability, at scale, requires contractor classification. That is not a coincidence. That is the model.
A union electrician on a job site earns prevailing wage, has workers' comp, contributes to a pension, has an apprenticeship path, and can file a grievance if the contractor violates the agreement. The work is physical, dangerous, and skilled. The protections are commensurate with the exposure.
A DoorDash driver navigates traffic, carries food, interacts with strangers, and operates a vehicle — with no workers' comp, no guaranteed minimum, no pension, and no grievance process. The work is physical and has real risk. The classification says none of that is true. The classification is a legal fiction that costs the company $205 million to protect and costs the worker every shift.
THE APP SETS THE ROUTE.
THE APP DEACTIVATES YOU.
THEY SPENT $205M TO CALL THAT FREEDOM.
THE WORKERS ARE STILL CONTRACTORS.