Uber, Lyft Applaud California Supreme Court Ruling on Gig Workers

Lyft and Uber stickers on car

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday (July 25) that gig workers can be classified as independent contractors, ending a long legal battle in the state.

The court’s ruling upheld a lower-court decision that Proposition 22, a 2020 ballot measure that allowed companies to classify drivers as gig workers, was constitutional, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday.

A yearslong legal battle followed voters’ passage of Proposition 22, as some drivers and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) challenged the measure, according to the report.

Following Thursday’s decision, Tia Orr, executive director of SEIU California, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that regardless of the ruling, “we’re just getting started!”

“We won’t stop mobilizing and organizing until gig workers have their dignity and their union, no matter how many 100s of millions greedy gig corps spend,” Orr said in the post.

Uber said in a statement posted on its website that the court’s decision affirmed the will of the 10 million Californians who voted in favor of Proposition 22 and protects the independence of drivers.

“Whether drivers or couriers choose to earn just a few hours a week or more, their freedom to work when and how they want is now firmly etched into California law, putting an end to misguided attempts to force them into an employment model that they overwhelmingly do not want,” Uber said in the statement.

Lyft said in a statement that the median hourly earnings of drivers on its platform in California increased 22% between 2019 and 2023 and that more than 80% of California drivers said Proposition 22 has been good for them.

“We are pleased to continue to bring Californians closer to their friends, family and neighbors, and provide drivers with access to flexible earnings opportunities and benefits while preserving their independence,” Lyft said in its statement.

The legal battle over the classification of gig workers is not limited to California.

Lawmakers in Minnesota passed a measure setting a minimum wage for gig drivers, the top court in Massachusetts heard arguments over competing ballot proposals that would redefine the relationship between app-based companies and drivers in that state, and the U.S. Department of Labor is facing legal challenges to a rule that would make it more difficult for companies to treat workers as independent contractors.


Tether Co-Founder Reeve Collins Backs New Stablecoin Project

Tether Co-Founder Reeve Collins is reportedly backing a new stablecoin project called Pi Protocol that will be backed by yield-bearing real-world assets like bonds.

The new stablecoin is expected to debut on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains in the second half of the year, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Feb. 18).

Pi aims to let industry participants who market the stablecoin get most of the profits from it, according to the report.

The company will use smart contracts to mint its USP stablecoin and will reward the minters with another token, USI, as yield, the report said.

“We view Pi Protocol as the evolution of stablecoins,” Collins told Bloomberg. “Tether has been extremely successful in showcasing demand for stablecoins. But they keep all the yield. We believe 10 years later the market is really ready to evolve.”

Collins served as Tether’s first CEO from 2013 to 2015, when he and his partners sold the company to the operators of the crypto exchange Bitfinex, according to the report.

Tether said in January that it made $13 billion in profits in 2024, Bloomberg reported Jan. 31, adding that the stablecoin issuer files quarterly information as part of a third-party attestation by accounting firm BDO rather than issuing audited financial statements.

In addition, Tether said it issued more than $23 billion in USDT in the last three months of 2024, and had more than $7 billion in excess reserves.

It was reported in January that an executive order issued by President Donald Trump will boost stablecoins and issuers like Tether and Circle Internet Financial.

Trump’s order aligned stablecoin’s with the government’s efforts to maintain the global supremacy of the dollar and blocked a potential competitor to stablecoins by barring development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

On Monday (Feb. 17), Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong (SCBHK), Animoca Brands and HKT said they agreed to form a joint venture to issue a stablecoin backed by the Hong Kong dollar.

Cedar Money said Jan. 30 that it raised $9.9 million in a seed round to support the growth of its payments software that uses stablecoins to facilitate cross-border payments between developed and emerging markets.