{"id":482622,"date":"2026-10-02T09:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/482622\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:44:30","slug":"lyft-to-pay-272-5-million-in-californias-largest-wage-theft-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/482622\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyft to pay $272.5 million in California&#8217;s largest wage theft settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ride-hailing giant Lyft is set to pay a historic $272.5 million <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/news\/press-releases\/attorney-general-bonta-city-attorneys-san-francisco-san-diego-and-los-angeles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">settlement<\/a> to resolve allegations around misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said it was \u201cthe largest wage-and-hour settlement in California history.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery worker deserves to be paid fully and fairly,\u201d Chiu wrote in a statement. \u201cMisclassification exploits workers, fuels inequality, and creates an unfair economy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vast majority of the settlement, 87 percent, will go back to drivers. The restitution amount will be set in the future and based on \u201cthe number of hours and miles driven between April 5, 2016, through Dec. 15, 2020,\u201d the period covered by the agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s a time before voters approved Proposition 22, an Uber- and Lyft-funded ballot measure that classified ride-hail drivers as independent contractors, meaning they would not receive the benefits and wage protections afforded to other workers. The gig companies spent more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/technology\/story\/2020-11-13\/how-uber-lyft-doordash-won-proposition-22\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$200 million<\/a> on the measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lyft does not acknowledge wrongdoing in the settlement, which was announced Thursday morning by Chiu, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the city attorneys of Los Angeles and San Diego, and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The city attorneys and state attorney general brought the lawsuit in 2020, alleging that Lyft deprived workers of minimum wages, overtime and reimbursements for work-related expenses, among other things.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The settlement is still subject to court approval. It does not include any changes to Lyft\u2019s work practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, Lyft maintains that drivers have always been legally classified, and that it is glad that a longtime legal risk has come to an end.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf approved, this settlement closes a chapter from a very different time, before Prop 22. The vast majority of rideshare drivers in California have always wanted to be independent contractors,\u201d reads the statement. \u201cWe\u2019re glad to put this case behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRideshare companies like Lyft have enjoyed massive growth and profits on the backs of drivers over the past decade,\u201d said Bonta. \u201cLyft\u2019s success would not be possible without the drivers who Lyft sought to unfairly short-change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A similar case involving Uber, Uber Technologies Wage and Hour Cases, is still winding its way through the San Francisco Superior Court.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_8019.jpg\" alt=\"A man speaks at a podium labeled \u201cOffice of the Attorney General,\u201d flanked by four people, with U.S. and California flags and a blue curtain in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-873894\"  \/>California Attorney General Rob Bonta announces a historic $272.5 million settlement with Lyft on Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by Yujie Zhou. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ride-hailing giant Lyft is set to pay a historic $272.5 million settlement to resolve allegations around misclassifying its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-482622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}