The short version
On ABC10 Sacramento (September 11, 2019), gig-economy expert Ryan Vet said AB5's worker protections could come at a cost to everyone, citing analyst forecasts of fare increases as high as 30% and warning that app companies could raise prices and require set hours. Uber's ballot measure became Proposition 22, which passed in 2020, and gig companies then raised California prices to fund driver benefits.
Ryan Vet · Article in ABC10 (KXTV Sacramento)
As California's legislature sent AB5 to the governor, Uber's top lawyer said the company would not reclassify its drivers, and Uber and Lyft said they were prepared to take the question to voters with a ballot measure of their own. Sacramento's ABC10 covered the announcement and went to gig-economy expert Ryan Vet for the cost side of the story.
ABC10's original page is no longer online. This recap links to the Internet Archive's copy.
Ryan's Big Takeaways
- 01
Protections cost money, and someone pays.
ABC10 summarized Ryan's view plainly: the protections "could come at a cost to everyone." He pointed to the forecasts circulating at the time: "One of the things that analysts predict is that there could be as much as a 30-percent increase in consumer fares." That number was the analysts' estimate, not his, and the eventual increases are hard to isolate. The direction held, though. Once Proposition 22 passed, Uber said California rides would cost $0.30 to $1.50 more and deliveries $1 to $2 more.
- 02
Flexibility was on the table.
Ryan also told ABC10 the bill could push app companies to require workers to keep set hours. That is the flexibility argument in its simplest form, and it is the one the companies took to voters.
- 03
The upside was real too.
He didn't argue the law was all cost. ABC10 reported his view that the plus would be that all workers would be offered the protections of employees. Holding both sides at once is the pattern across his AB5 interviews that year.
Standout Quotes
One of the things that analysts predict is that there could be as much as a 30-percent increase in consumer fares.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Ryan Vet tell ABC10 about AB5?
Ryan Vet told ABC10 Sacramento in September 2019 that AB5's protections could come at a cost to everyone. He cited analyst predictions of fare increases as high as 30%, said app companies could raise prices and require set hours, and noted that workers would gain the protections of employees.
What happened to Uber's ballot measure?
It became Proposition 22, which kept app-based drivers as independent contractors with an earnings guarantee and benefit stipends. It passed in November 2020 with 58% of the vote after a record $220 million campaign, and the California Supreme Court upheld it in July 2024.
Books, People & Sources Mentioned
- California Proposition 22 (2020) : The ballot measure Uber announced in this story.
- Uber and DoorDash raise California prices after Prop 22 : What happened to prices.
Keep Exploring
- What I called on the gig economy in 2019, and what happened Explore →
- Appearance USA TODAY: what AB5 would cost consumers USA TODAY quoted Ryan Vet, then founder of the gig staffing marketplace Boon, on the night California's Senate passed AB5. He called it good for workers, warned it would "implode the gig economy as we know it today," and argued consumers were the side nobody was counting. Explore →
- Appearance The Epoch Times: AB5 and trucking The Epoch Times quoted Ryan Vet in November 2019 on AB5's spread beyond Uber and Lyft. He called the law "whack-a-mole," said it was disrupting trucking, "an industry that didn't need disruption," and named the flexibility drivers would lose as employees. Explore →
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How generations are reshaping work and home. Practical, research-backed, and delivered weekly. Read it at RyanVet.com/collide.
