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Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

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Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#51

Post by thrownblown »

grandalf wrote: post #21

The gig economy is always going to be more volatile than full-time work. This is why grocery stores had not already hired full time drivers to deliver groceries, and why there is demand for Instacart. It's the same with Uber. During a rainy day rush-hour there are rarely any medallion cabs available, so Uber created a way to get transportation on those days (surge pricing) that incentiveizes drivers to work during th…

One of the lessons of Austin's temporary Uber/Lyft kick out was that very quickly worker run ride sharing emerged to serve the need.

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#52

Post by chrisgd »

spo81rty wrote: post #16

What I don't understand is if the pay or working conditions are so bad, why don't people just go find a new job? If they can't get anyone to do the job, they will be forced to pay more or fix the conditions. If they have a terrible reputation, nobody will want to work for them. It's simple supply and demand.

Just strap on their job helmet and go down to jobland.

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#53

Post by justboxing »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #6

I recently ordered from DoorDash, a similar service. The app gave me a price for the order and then had a line item called “Dasher Tip” and asked me how much I wanted to put down. I put in $20. Later when the woman arrived with the food, we stopped to talk for a minute. She was a little younger than my mom, and said she had just started working for the service after her husband died. She asked me if she could ask me…

> I had tipped her. $20. She showed me her phone with the app on our order. DoorDash told her we had tipped her $6

This is why I almost always tip in Cash. I hand it to the person, in person.

San Francisco's Indian Restaurants (Indian here, and I go to the Indian restaurants here all the time, that's how I know) are notorious for not passing on any of the tips left on the card to the waitstaff, and some even don't give them the cash that's left in a counter tip jar.

I'd previously mentioned this situation on HN and someone told me that I could complain to some Labor organization that will investigate the Restaurant. Anyone have any experience doing this?

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#54

Post by reducesuffering »

chrisgd wrote: post #50
aphextron wrote: post #47

Instacart pay depends entirely on where you work. My brother works for them in SF/SV and earns around $2k/week with wages and tips. For someone with zero skills or job training otherwise it's a pretty sweet deal. Plus you end up with a car load of free groceries to take home whenever the system screws up an order.

$96k a year delivering on Instacart?

2k / week * 52 weeks = 104k

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#55

Post by camus2 »

aphextron wrote: post #47

Instacart pay depends entirely on where you work. My brother works for them in SF/SV and earns around $2k/week with wages and tips. For someone with zero skills or job training otherwise it's a pretty sweet deal. Plus you end up with a car load of free groceries to take home whenever the system screws up an order.

> Instacart pay depends entirely on where you work. My brother works for them in SF/SV and earns around $2k/week with wages and tips. For someone with zero skills or job training otherwise it's a pretty sweet deal. Plus you end up with a car load of free groceries to take home whenever the system screws up an order.

Funny how we were hearing these stories about Uber as well a few years ago, where people online were pretending some drivers became millionaire working for Uber. We now know none of this was true.

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#56

Post by omegaworks »

grandalf wrote: post #21

The gig economy is always going to be more volatile than full-time work. This is why grocery stores had not already hired full time drivers to deliver groceries, and why there is demand for Instacart. It's the same with Uber. During a rainy day rush-hour there are rarely any medallion cabs available, so Uber created a way to get transportation on those days (surge pricing) that incentiveizes drivers to work during th…

> The gig economy is always going to be more volatile than full-time work.

This is not an excuse to short-change the people doing the labor.

I can't repeat this enough.

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#57

Post by atonse »

bcherny wrote: post #43
jeremyt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me crazy, but when I use one of these services, I expect the service to be reflected in the price.

Thought experiment: what would happen if tipping was made illegal? Would restaurants go out of business because they couldn't pay their servers enough because their patrons weren't willing to pay when the actual cost of dishes was made explicit on the menu? Or would restaurants ditch table service? Or would waiters settle for a new lower wage?

What usually happens is that restaurants institute an across the board 18% service charge on all receipts. That covers tips for all the staff.

There are a couple restaurants that have had good success with this.

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#58

Post by xadhominemx »

georgemcbay wrote: post #15
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CA - Bay Area

You should consider reporting this to both the California Labor Commissioner (Dept of Industrial Relations) and the IRS, both would be extremely interested in this especially if this is DoorDash's standard procedure. I've used the service a few times in the past and probably will again, but I'm going to start asking the drivers how much they got as a tip and will definitely report any discrepancies. The website speci…

ya this is so illegal I doubt it's true

Re: Some Instacart workers to strike over pay that can be as low as $1 per hour

#59

Post by tehlike »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #6

I recently ordered from DoorDash, a similar service. The app gave me a price for the order and then had a line item called “Dasher Tip” and asked me how much I wanted to put down. I put in $20. Later when the woman arrived with the food, we stopped to talk for a minute. She was a little younger than my mom, and said she had just started working for the service after her husband died. She asked me if she could ask me…

Playing devils advocate (and not defending doordash in any way): Could the tip be shared potentially with the people preparing the orders and the delivery person?
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