For gig companies, the war to cement Uber and Lyft drivers as contractors in California was bloody, expensive and a massive blowout. In Massachusetts, a coalition of gig work companies has already broken state campaign-spending records over a potential similar ballot measure.
But this year, in Washington state, the decision to enshrine gig workers as contractors — not employees — wasn’t even a fight. Instead, it was the product of a backroom, measured and quietly intense discussion that everyone involved agreed is rare in today’s political climate.
With very little fanfare, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law at the end of March that confirms — for now — the contractor status of Uber and Lyft drivers, protecting the respective companies from the threat of being forced to classify their workers as full-time employees. The bill also grants first-of-its-kind benefits and protections to drivers: a guaranteed minimum wage, just-cause firing protections and access to some of the state labor systems that are designed to protect workers from company violations of labor laws. The bill was endorsed not just by the gig companies but also by the local unions and labor politicians that typically oppose such laws. Meanwhile, national labor groups vehemently opposed the bill in a rare public fracture.
“Simply put, there is no better place in the country to drive for Lyft or Uber than today in Seattle, where we have already had some local legislative success, and soon,...
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