AB5 was a stupidly blunt law that had so many carve-outs for arbitrary professions. I remember being a software developer contractor in California at the time worrying about whether I'd get fired from contracts because of that law. Prop 22 ultimately left the parts of AB5 that screwed over everyone but the intended targets (ride share companies).
I'm sure there's many who will claim Prop 22 was solely voted in because the ride share companies badgered all their gig workers to vote it in. This is likely true to an extent, but AB5 also presented a real existential threat to many gig workers (and contractors in general such as myself): as employees, no longer could we write off business expenses against our taxes. For ride share drivers, this would be wear and tear on their vehicle, repairs, gas mileage, insurance, phone/cell service, and plenty of other things they have to pay for as their own business. And it's definitely not something the ride share companies would of started paying for either.
The incentive for the state made plenty of sense though: they could finally collect state unemployment taxes and do away with the business expense tax write offs.
There were all sorts of weird things in AB5. Truck drivers were treated differently if they delivering milk vs delivering juice. It was a ridiculous law.
I'm sure there's many who will claim Prop 22 was solely voted in because the ride share companies badgered all their gig workers to vote it in. This is likely true to an extent, but AB5 also presented a real existential threat to many gig workers (and contractors in general such as myself): as employees, no longer could we write off business expenses against our taxes. For ride share drivers, this would be wear and tear on their vehicle, repairs, gas mileage, insurance, phone/cell service, and plenty of other things they have to pay for as their own business. And it's definitely not something the ride share companies would of started paying for either.
The incentive for the state made plenty of sense though: they could finally collect state unemployment taxes and do away with the business expense tax write offs.