She figures she earned closer to $10 an hour
after accounting for expenses that included
renting a car for $1,000 a month. She said the
hours were long and stressful, and she got
into an accident that, had it resulted in injury,
would have meant hospital bills and unpaid
time off work.
“Before I went out to work I always prayed to God...
to protect myself,” Okawa said. “The traffic is crazy.”
The ride-hailing and delivery companies have
spent more than $180 million, so far, to pass the
measure, while labor groups have put up more
than $10 million to defeat it.
McCuan said the companies are likely to put
up another $100 million or more, making it
more expensive in today’s dollars than a 1998
proposition that cleared the way to allow Native
American tribes to operate casinos in California.
“Big Tech has joined the big, bad bogeymen of
California politics,” McCuan said. “If you’re going
to push something and you’re going to have
difficulty in the Legislature because Democrats
own the Legislature and labor is a 900-pound
gorilla in Sacramento, you have to... go around
the Legislature.”
Most of the state’s largest newspapers, which
benefited from exemptions for freelancers and a
temporary reprieve for drivers who deliver their
publications, have written editorials in support
of the measure.
The San Francisco Chronicle called the measure
imperfect but said it attempts to strike a balance
between workers and the companies that “will
keep the app-based, ride-hail and delivery
services operating in California.”