The ridehailing companies Uber and Lyft have seen their decision to go for a vote in California vindicated, as people in the state supported their call to keep drivers exempt from being classified as company employees.

AP reports that around 58% of voters supported Proposition 22, which, had it been lost, would have meant drivers would be subject to employment rights such as minimum wage and health insurance, which would dramatically change the companies’s business models.

Uber and Lyft had threatened to cease operations in their home state if that happened.

While Proposition 22 exempts app-based transport and delivery companies from the labour laws, and keeps drivers classified as independent contractors, it does put in place policies that require those companies to provide “alternative benefits,” including a guaranteed minimum wage and subsidies for health insurance if they average 25 hours of work a week.

Similar arguments are raging here in the UK over the status of drivers for Uber, and companies like it.