Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, STATE LEGISLATION—Wisconsin Governor Evers vetoes gig worker carve-out bill, (Aug 11, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

“This bill would have permanently stripped important protections like worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, and overtime pay from Wisconsin’s app-based delivery drivers,” explained Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, “the first such statewide legislation in the nation.”

On Friday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced that he was vetoing in its entirety Assembly Bill 269, which passed earlier this year, because he “object[s] to the bill’s definition of independent contractor status in the absence of any guaranteed benefit for workers.” He also cited the failure of the legislature to provide meaningful opportunity for “robust dialogue and engagement to reach consensus and compromise.”

Exempted from minimum wage, workers’ comp. The bill, the governor explained, “would create a new legal framework for application-based drivers (defined as drivers that provide delivery or transportation services through a digital network) that exempts them from state minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and worker’s compensation laws if certain conditions are met.”

"App-based drivers are a growing segment of Wisconsin’s workforce and changes to independent contractor definitions are a serious endeavor," Evers (D-WI) said.

Portable benefit accounts. The bill would also “authorize network companies to offer optional portable benefit accounts through approved financial service providers and to provide voluntary insurance coverage to eligible drivers.” Noting that he is “open to finding a pathway to portable benefits” he said the “solution must be thoughtful, benefit workers, and be created through a process in which workers and management have the opportunity to participate, collaborate, and reach agreement.” He argued that the veto would allow time for those conversations to occur.

Would have replaced important standards. “This bill would have permanently stripped important protections like worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, and overtime pay from Wisconsin’s app-based delivery drivers,” explained Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, “the first such statewide legislation in the nation.”

The union noted: “Wisconsin law includes a series of tests that must be used to determine whether a worker is eligible for worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, minimum wage, and overtime pay. AB 269 would have replaced these important standards with a new four-point test designed to ensure that app-based workers do not qualify for these benefits, saving companies the cost of providing them.”

DoorDash says portable benefits work. A spokesperson for DoorDash, which the union claims spent $1.4 million campaigning in support of the bill, criticized the governor’s veto, stating: “We've already shown through pilot programs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Georgia that portable benefits work.” They vowed to continue working towards getting legislation signed into law in the state.

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