Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have now spent more than $200 million on Prop. 22 — but there's still no guarantee it'll pass
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
- Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other companies have now spent more than $200 million to pass Prop. 22 in California.
- Prop. 22 would create a central benefits fund for drivers and couriers, while allowing the companies to continue classifying them as contractors.
- However, the measure is far from a shoe-in. Recent polling found only a slight lead for decided "yes" voters.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Gig-work companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are fighting for their lives in California.
On Thursday evening, the consortium fighting to pass Prop. 22 — thereby avoiding classifying workers as employees under state law — crossed the $200 million milestone on campaign spending. A final $3.75 million from DoorDash pushed total spending past the symbolic milestone to about $203 million, Politico reported Thursday.
By comparison, groups spending against the ballot measure have spent only $20 million, Politico said.
It's the most expensive ballot measure ever financed in California, according to the report, and there's no guarantee their investments will pay off.
The final push comes as new polling released Monday, Oct. 26, showed the ballot measure anything but guaranteed to pass. 46% of those polled by Berkeley IGS in September said they're voting yes, compared to 42% voting no. That's a much closer race than earlier polls by the same group indicated, and with 12% undecided, things could go either way.
If the measure passes, Uber and Lyft will be able to breathe a sigh of legal and financial relief. The companies are embroiled in a legal spat with California's Attorney General about their compliance with a new law that the state says requires drivers to be classified as employees.
Prop. 22 would instead create a central fund that companies would pay into in order to provide certain benefits like healthcare and guaranteed minimum earnings. Those benefits would follow a worker across gig-works apps, while maintaining flexibility in scheduling.
If the measure fails, however, all eyes will turn back to the ongoing court case. Both companies have threatened drastic measures — from limited work, to higher prices and even a complete shut down — if forced to comply with the law and classify drivers as employees.
"We're looking at all of our options [if Prop 22 fails]," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said earlier in October. "We're in the transportation business, so we're going to do our best to operate in California. Where we can operate is a question mark, and the size and scale of the business will be substantially reduced."
Critics of the measure say Prop 22 creates a dangerous anti-worker precedent that could be copied nationally. Presidential candidate Joe Biden — who faces an election of his own on Tuesday — has spoken against the proposition, as have more progressive politicians including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
"Prop 22 ensures corporations like Uber and Lyft won't be held accountable for their actions and have no responsibility for paying workers a living wage or providing them with any protection," Gig Workers Rising said in a statement. "This proposition absolves the companies of any responsibility to their workers and writes into California state law a minimum wage as low as $5.64/hour."