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

arstechnica.com

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

#81

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…

That is appalling. A pox on the businesspersons at DoorDash.

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

#82

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.

It’s amazing the degree to which “our business model is treating people like garbage by way of tech” has become a justification in and of itself.

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

#83

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…

This is terrible. The app definitely says, "100% goes to your dasher".

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

#84

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…

This is terrible. The app definitely says, "100% goes to your dasher".

If that's the case then I'd be surprised if it weren't classed as fraud.

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

#85

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…

That seems weird, since I would expect to have seen something about that in the NYT, WSJ, or at least TechCrunch. I did some quick Googling and according to the DoorDash Reddit, your tips are only shown to you at the end of the shift and they are grouped together so you can't tell how much each person tipped you: https://www.reddit.com/r/doordash/comments/6dkjjw/tip_questi...

Are you sure you weren't just looking at the $6 delivery fee and your tip would be added later?

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

#86
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.

I often wonder what uplift the U.S. economy gets because consumers are lured by an initial low price that doesn't include service fees, taxes, gratuities, etc. It's like an accepted form of bait-and-switch , which is a proven tactic that increases sales.

I'm sure it has some effect but it's certainly diminished by the fact that everyone is aware of the markup and it's the same everywhere.

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

#87

This isn't innovation, it is exploitation. Where are the state attorneys' general on this? Injured hauling a 600-lb order of sugar and cooking oil -- it's absurd the company does not carry workers' comp insurance for this. In the real world not carrying workers' comp insurance is very serious business. This is going to go like Napster, we'll find a better way when it is gone.

But they can opt out of any order they don't want to fulfill, right? Who would choose to fulfill that crazy order for the price on offer?

It might just be my opinion bit I think that the individual right to refuse is never enough protection. Especially in employment where preying on people who can't afford to say no seems to be the norm.

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

#88

> Instacart has agreed to pay at least several million dollars to settle the lawsuits, which will result in a typical settlement payout of a few hundred dollars per worker. The attorneys who brought the lawsuits, by contrast, stand to make millions. This seems like an unnecessary and out-of-context dig at lawyers. Also, the citation provided doesn't square with the claim: the settlement they linked to allowed total d…

I get the sentiment that there are some lawsuits where the only people making real money are the lawyers but I think it's weird that it reflects on the them and not the system that pays out so little to injured classes. For a case like this it's easy to rack up a million dollars in billable hours.

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

#90
> Ars spoke with six Instacart shoppers who said that they have routinely been made to pick up several heavy items, such as cases of bottled water, soda, or ice.

In Bangalore, I routinely see people from not only grocery delivery companies, Big Basket but food delivery like Freshmenu carrying huge carry bags with god knows how many items. Couple of times I have seen people struggle to get up the stairs with that much weight on their backs. And those are not contractors but employees.

I am sure few years later, we will need a study of back or some orthopedic problems associated with "shoppers".

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