Lyft Inc. and its drivers in California proposed a $27 million settlement of their lawsuit over pay and work expenses Wednesday, more than twice the amount that a federal judge rejected as inadequate last month.

The settlement, which requires court approval, would compensate drivers for some of their costs in fueling and maintaining their vehicles. It would not specify their employment status — an omission, that, Lyft said, reaffirms the drivers’ status as independent contractors rather than employees.

“Drivers on the Lyft platform will continue to be independent contractors,” the company said. Lyft’s general counsel, Kristin Sverchek, said the terms of the agreement would help to “preserve (drivers’) flexibility to control when, where and for how long they drive on the platform.”

The drivers’ lawyers, Shannon Liss-Riordan and Matthew Carlson, said the settlement “does not resolve for the future” the question of the drivers’ status. They called the agreement “a fair resolution” that would “provide significant payments to Lyft drivers who have put a lot of their time into this company.”

The announcement comes five weeks after Lyft’s larger rival, Uber Technologies, negotiated a similar settlement with its drivers that would pay them $100 million, also subject to court approval. A group of drivers in Los Angeles are challenging that settlement.

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The drivers’ status was the central issue in both cases. Employees are entitled to minimum wages and overtime, and must be reimbursed for workplace expenses. Both Lyft and Uber contend their drivers are independent contractors, noting that they determine their own work hours, provide their own cars and decide which passengers to accept. But the drivers, with support from California’s labor commissioner, have cited both companies’ extensive control over their working conditions, including fares, routes and reimbursement.

The Lyft settlement will be submitted to U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco, who last month rejected a $12.25 million settlement that he said “shortchanged” the drivers as well as the state of California. Under California law, the state would get 75 percent of any penalties awarded by a jury if the case went to trial.

Chhabria noted that lawyers in the case, when they negotiated the initial settlement in November, had estimated potential reimbursement for the drivers at $64 million. That amount has since grown to $126 million, he said, due to a significant increase in the number of Lyft drivers and passengers in California.

Lawyers for the drivers said Wednesday the new settlement was based on the new data, which showed that mileage driven for Lyft in the state had roughly doubled.

Under the settlement, they said, those who have driven more than six months for Lyft would receive more than $6,000. Lyft said fewer than 1,000 of its drivers in California were considered “full time,” working more than 30 hours a week in at least half the weeks they drove.

The company said the settlement would also limit its authority to “deactivate,” or fire, drivers. It will be allowed to do so only for “specific reasons,” which were not spelled out in Wednesday’s announcement.

Chronicle staff writer Carolyn Said contributed to this report.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko