Proposition 22 is a California ballot proposition that was approved by voters in 2020 and became state law in 2021.
Prop 22 created a new earnings & benefits system that applies to all app-based drivers in California.
The most significant change is that app-based drivers now receive an earnings boost if earnings don’t reach the required minimum.
Here are more details about Prop 22, and how it affects your earnings as a gig worker.
Article Contents
- What Proposition 22 Does
- Uber and Uber Eats Earnings Minimums
- Lyft Earnings Minimums
- Instacart Earnings Minimums
- DoorDash Earnings Minimums
- Missing Prop 22 Payment? What to Do
- Other Prop 22 Benefits & Requirements
- What Does Prop 22 Mean for Driver Earnings?
What Proposition 22 does: Wage & healthcare policies for app-based workers
In November 2020, California voters passed Proposition 22 by a wide margin, with 58% in favor.
The law defines app-based rideshare and delivery drivers as independent contractors, and puts in place new wage policies that require drivers to receive guaranteed minimum earnings.
App-based companies are also required to offer new health and injury benefits.
Guaranteed earnings = 120% of local minimum wage + 30 cents per mile
Earnings for app-based workers must now equal at least 120% of the local minimum wage and 30 cents per mile.
If payments for services are lower than the guaranteed minimum, app companies must offer extra payment to meet the minimums.
Only ‘engaged’ hours and miles are subject to the earnings guarantee, and tips are not included in minimum earnings calculation.
Proposition 22 earnings adjustment example
When earnings are less than 120% of the local minimum wage and 30 cents per mile, app companies must pay an adjustment so that worker earnings match the guaranteed minimum.
App companies will pay an adjustment if your earnings don’t meet the prop 22 minimum
In the example above, a Lyft driver earned $535.01 in eligible earnings.
But based on their engaged time and engaged miles, their guaranteed earnings should have been $669.06.
Lyft paid an adjustment of $134.06 to meet the guaranteed minimum earnings.
Healthcare subsidies
Drivers can now receive a healthcare subsidy from app companies, depending on the number of hours worked per week.
Drivers who average between 15 and 25 engaged hours per week will receive a healthcare subsidy equal to 41% of the average California Covered premium each month.
Drivers who average at least 25 engaged hours per week will receive a subsidy equal to 82% of the average CC premium. More detail at Ballotpedia.
One catch is that engaged hours can’t be combined between services.
So if you have 10 engaged hours on Uber and 10 engaged hours on DoorDash, the 20 combined hours don’t make you eligible for the subsidy. The 15+ hours must be from one company.
What is “engaged” and “booked” time & miles?
An important detail of prop 22 is that only ‘engaged’ time and miles are counted toward the new minimum guaranteed earnings.
Engaged time is counted as the time between accepting a service request and completing the request.
Engaged miles are the miles driven during the engaged time. The nature of the ‘service request’ depends on the app, so for Uber, it’s a ride request, for Instacart it’s an order batch, etc.
Because of engaged time requirements, you might still experience low earnings if you don’t receive many service requests. If you’re logged in for hours but only get a few rides or deliveries, your earnings can theoretically dip below the minimum guaranteed earnings because the minimums only apply to engaged time and miles.
Uber & Uber Eats prop 22 earnings minimums
Uber released a blog post outlining the new prop 22 benefits for drivers. It describes how the earnings minimums will affect Uber drivers, and other benefits and requirements that were created by prop 22.
The biggest change for Uber drivers is that you will receive an earnings adjustment if your earnings are less than the legally-required guaranteed minimum.
Guaranteed minimum earnings adjustments: If your earnings over 2 weeks do not meet the guaranteed minimum of 120% local minimum wage and 30 cents per mile, Uber will pay the difference by adding an additional payment to your earnings.
Tips, refunds, tolls, cleaning fees, and referral payments do not count toward toward the guarantee.
Uber automatically adds an earnings adjustment if you don’t meet the prop 22 minimum
How Uber counts engaged time and miles: For Uber and Uber Eats, engaged time begins as soon as you accept a trip or delivery request, and ends when you complete it. The 30 cents per mile guarantee does not apply to bicycle and on-foot delivery.
Downtime between ride requests is not compensated at the new guaranteed minimum, so it’s still possible to have low earnings on a slow day.
More reading for Uber Drivers
- Uber Driver Requirements
- Uber Drivers Can Now See Upfront Earnings
- How to Rent a Car for Uber
- The Fastest Ways to Contact Uber Customer Service
Lyft prop 22 earnings minimums
Lyft drivers in California receive an earnings adjustment if your earnings are less than the legally-required guaranteed minimum.
Guaranteed minimum earnings adjustments: If your earnings do not meet the guaranteed minimum of 120% local minimum wage and 30 cents per mile, Lyft will pay the difference by adding an additional payment to your earnings.
Tips, refunds, tolls, cleaning fees, and referral payments do not count toward toward the guarantee.
How Lyft counts engaged time and miles: For Lyft, engaged time begins as soon as you accept a trip or delivery, and ends when you complete it. The 30 cents per mile guarantee does not apply to bicycle and on-foot delivery.
Downtime between ride requests is not compensated at the new guaranteed minimum, so it’s still possible to have low earnings on a slow day.
Instacart prop 22 earnings minimums
Instacart shoppers receive a weekly adjustment to earnings if batch payments are less than the guaranteed minimum.
Batch payment upfront details: The way that batch payments are presented is the same as before. Before accepting a batch, you will see the batch payment amount, estimated distance, store location, number and type of items, and the customer’s location.
Weekly earnings adjustment: If your weekly earnings are less than the guaranteed minimum, a weekly ‘adjustment’ payment will be added to your earnings to bring them up to the guaranteed minimum. Batch payments and miles driven are both factored into the earnings equation.
A big Instacart prop 22 payment
Tips aren’t included in the guaranteed minimum calculation, so there is potential that this could be a pay boost for shoppers in California if customers continue to tip as they currently do.
But it’s also possible that Instacart will pass on increased costs to customers, who in turn will reduce their tips.
How Instacart measures engaged time and miles: Engaged time begins when you accept a batch, and ends when you deliver it. Engaged miles are the distance travelled from batch acceptance to delivery to the customer.
That means that any downtime between batches is not compensated to the 120% guaranteed minimum. If you don’t have a busy day, there’s still a chance for low earnings.
Instacart created a website to explain the new CA payment system
More reading for Instacart shoppers
- How to Become an Instacart Shopper
- Are Double Batches Worth it for Shoppers?
- Is the Instacart Rating System Fair? How it Works
DoorDash earnings minimums
DoorDash now offers the earnings minimums that are required by prop 22.
DoorDash drivers will receive an earnings adjustment every week if you don’t reach the guaranteed earnings minimum.
Guaranteed minimum earnings payments: DoorDash calculates your guaranteed minimum weekly, and if your delivery earnings don’t match 120% of the local minimum wage and 30 cents per mile, you will receive a payment from DoorDash to make up the difference.
Tips do not count toward the minimum and you will continue to receive 100% of tips.
How DoorDash counts engaged time and miles: For DoorDash, engaged time begins as soon as you accept a delivery request and ends when you complete it.
Engaged miles are all miles driven during the engaged time. Bicycle and on-foot delivery do not receive the 30 cents per mile guarantee.
There is no guaranteed minimum between orders. On a slow day it’s still possible to have low earnings that won’t be boosted by the new minimum.
A DoorDash earnings adjustment. Credit spdyeric13 on Reddit
More reading for DoorDash dashers
Missing prop 22 payment? What to do
Prop 22 earnings adjustments are automatically applied to your earnings. If an earnings adjustment is late, it’s usually a temporary delay that will be fixed within a few days.
If your prop 22 payment has been missing for more than a week, contact the app to get more information.
Because the payments are required by law, it’s unusual for an app to completely miss a payment.
Other Prop 22 benefits & requirements
Proposition 22 added other benefits that apply to all app-based gigs. Drivers will be automatically signed up for these benefits, and each gig company should apply these benefits in the same way.
Medical expenses
Occupational accident insurance now covers at least $1 million in medical expenses and lost income if your injury is suffered while online and available to receive service requests.
Disability payments
Occupational accident insurance will provide disability payments for injuries beginning when you are online waiting for a service request.
Payments are 66% of average weekly earnings during the prior four weeks before the injury. Payments last up to 2 years.
Survivor benefits
Accidental death insurance will be made available for your spouse, children, or other dependents if the death occurs while you are using the app for work.
Safety training
All drivers will be required to undergo mandatory safety training, along with ant-discrimination and sexual harassment training.
Each app will publish a safety course that drivers must complete. Keep an eye out for emails and in-app notifications to get a link to safety courses.
What does Prop 22 mean for overall driver earnings?
There’s a case to be made that the new system leads to both higher earnings and lower earnings.
To complicate things, the new healthcare subsidies and benefits add another factor that makes the total compensation equation harder to figure out.
The case for higher earnings: The lowest-earning drivers will most likely earn more with the new minimum guarantee. Customers accustomed to tipping may continue to do so, adding extra income on top of the newly-boosted earnings.
For workers clocking more than 15 hours per week, the healthcare subsidy is a strong benefit that certainly contributes to increasing overall earnings with no downsides.
The case for lower earnings: With many of the app companies far away from profitability, they will need to find a way to soften this new hit to their bottom line.
That likely means higher prices for customers, which could lead to lowered demand for the services, resulting in lower overall pay for drivers.
Customers paying higher prices may tip less, which would reduce a significant portion of driver income.
Tips aren’t subject to app service fees, so if tip earnings are replaced with app earnings, the apps get a bigger piece of the pie and the drivers lose out.
What do you think? Do you think these changes are good for drivers, or will they harm them in the long run?
Bobby says
Since Prop 22, as a UBER driver, my earnings have decreased so low that I’m driving less and declining riders that are below $5.00 for longer trips. This is one example of the outrages amounts UBER takes. Pickup in Castro Valley CA, drop off SF CA, 25 miles, 33 min 8 sec. Rider paid UBER $45.96, driver paid $18.30. Commercial Auto Insurance $$10.00,even as they acknowledge they are NOT an insurance agent, insurer or broker. Fees can be as low as $1.00 but no higher than $10.00, payable by Riders to UBER, and not a part of drivers earnings. Question: how is the price calculated, since it’s always the highest, $10.
Donna Long says
Is Prop 22 retroactive to drivers that have been driving prior to prop 22 and if so who do we contact to get those payments of you are no longer driver for any of them?
Doug H says
No, it is not retroactive.
Danny r says
Why is Uber eats screwing drivers by falsifying engaged delivery hours to avoid pay guaranteed prop 22 earnings? There system is rigged
Janae says
Who do we contact if doordash is not paying us out prop 22 pat adjustment? It’s been 5 days and they are not telling us what’s going on and even put out an email stating we would get it 2 days ago and still nothing.. who can we contact to get them to pay us???
Renee says
Gig work does not need to be regulated like this! By nature gig work rewards those who hustle the hardest, put the work in by accepting and completing more orders with the most accuracy to boost their ratings and subsequently their tips. We aren’t employees of these companies and minimum wage shouldn’t apply to this type of work. The tips we make greatly boost our average hourly pay to an amount much higher than that of “regular” low-skill W-2 jobs. The sole reason a person wouldn’t be reaching minimum wage would be because they aren’t accepting enough orders or taking too long to deliver them. I picture drivers just driving around endlessly to boost their earnings up past what they should be. These companies will fold if required to compensate us like this and the gig economy will no longer exist thus robbing us all of our ability to hustle and make money.
C. Allen says
This is false. I accept every order than comes in, spending at least 12 hours per day, and my net earnings are consistently only half of what Prop 22 guarantees.
An unfair system will only yield unfair results.
Rick McGovern says
I haven’t gotten a single penny of the .30 mileage reimbursement from Uber since November when it passed. Only worked 10 weeks since November, but finally reached out. I’ve still probably driven over 2000 miles, so that’s a good $600 they owe me.
Sixto says
Nope! Exploration! $17 an hour? What about your miles, your stress, your physical efforts, car maintenance… No way! I’m working in a restaurant doing this for 7 years now. I make more than $23 just a few miles a day! It’s not worth it!