Leading up to the 2020 November elections in the United States, gig industry giants Uber, Lyft and Doordash spent over $200 million dollars on a ballot campaign in the state of California to prevent the classification of gig workers as employees of their respective platforms. The ballot measure was a response to the passage of Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5) which implements specific requirements for the categorization of a worker as an independent contractor, a classification that gig companies use to avoid employment related laws and benefits such as paid time off, overtime and worker's compensation. A.B. 5 stated that workers should be considered employees if they conduct work that is central to the company's business. This distinction is hard for gig companies to disprove as there isn't really an Uber if you don't have Uber drivers. At least not yet.