Is Proposition 22 still valid in California?

Proposition 22, approved in 2020, classifies app-based rideshare and delivery drivers as independent contractors and substitutes a package of benefits for the protections that would otherwise apply. It was challenged as unconstitutional.

In July 2024 the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld it, rejecting the contention that the measure conflicted with the Legislature's plenary power over workers' compensation under the state constitution.

What matters for almost every business reading this is the scope. Prop 22 is confined to app-based transportation and delivery companies operating through their own platforms. It creates no general exemption from the ABC test, and it does not make it easier to treat any other worker as a contractor.

The misreading is common enough to be worth naming: that Prop 22 signals a softening of California's classification regime. It does not. Dynamex and the ABC test remain the framework for everyone outside the narrow category the measure covers, and Vazquez means that framework reaches backwards as well as forwards.