Of course. How else can instacart make money to pay it's developers at San Francisco hq?
You have to skim every penny from the bottom to sit on top.
#bezosDidIt
#gatesDidIt
#jobsDidIt
Nothing new
Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
31–40 of 718 posts
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#32> That's right: the customer's tip doesn't get added to the worker's check — it just gets deducted from what Instacart pays. In other words, up-front tips go to Instacart, not to the worker.
My understanding is that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not allow for employers to whithold tips.[0]
Gratuity/tip is a legally recognized concept. You can't just throw the word in your app and do what you want with the money it generates. There are legal expectations around how the money goes from the customer to the worker.
[0] https://www.ramoslaw.com/is-your-employer-committing-wage-th...
[edit] Added "not"
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#33This isn't uncommon or new. Many states allow for tips to offset wages, even if wages fall below the minimum wage. Some states even have a separate minimum wage for tipper workers that is below the standard minimum wage. If you want to blame someone, I suggest looking for the actual culprit and not a law-abiding company. This has little to do with Instacart and everything to do with state wage laws.
Yes, this is common in the restaurant industry. But a few differences:
(1) Tips are expected in the restaurant industry
(2) Waitstaff knows what they're signing up for
(3) The restaurant does not adjust wages after tips have been received
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#34The whole tipping system should be stopped. The businesses will be forced to start paying fair wages to their workers.
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#35This isn't uncommon or new. Many states allow for tips to offset wages, even if wages fall below the minimum wage. Some states even have a separate minimum wage for tipper workers that is below the standard minimum wage. If you want to blame someone, I suggest looking for the actual culprit and not a law-abiding company. This has little to do with Instacart and everything to do with state wage laws.
Or you could blame them for not doing the right thing, regardless of the law.
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#36What absolute garbage, it defies the entire point of tipping. Is this even legal? If a restaurant got caught doing this, they would definitely lose many customers or even get run out of business.
It's the norm in many states, so I don't think so. I grew up in IL where waiters make something like $3 / hour. If that + tips is less than minimum wage then the company has to make up the difference. Not quite the same as they don't dock your pay if you make good tip money, but same principle.
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#37DoorDash does the same thing of “stealing” tips. Either you should tip in cash or not at all.
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#38I used to work for a delivery company with this same pay structure. This is garbage and its taking advantage of young people who are looking for jobs.
Serious question: if somebody knows that a job like this is such a ripoff (even if the rates aren't advertised, you _will_ find out soon enough, if via stories like this), why would somebody take a job like this?
The reason people take jobs like this is that they don't have other options, often for a variety of reasons. I know that a lot of the people I talk to need the flexible hours due to family obligations. For some these types of jobs are supplemental- they aren't the primary source of income, but provide a bit extra when money is tight.
For some people though there just aren't a lot of jobs available that match their education and experience.
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#39There's a related blog post up on Medium by this same group (Working Washington) where they placed the same order, once with tip and once without, so people could directly compare. From my perspective Instacart is stealing from its customers and workers by doing this. I'm a huge fan of instacart (my fiance and I use it regularly), but this is definitely going to push me away from the platform. At a minimum I'm going…
> From my perspective Instacart is stealing from its customers and workers by doing this. This is 100% wage theft.
Yep. They need to pay reimburse those workers with a penalty fee tacked on.
Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip
#40I was a huge user of Instacart 2 years ago when my nearest grocery store turned into one of the busiest Whole Foods in my city that I didn't enjoy dealing with.
The way they keep working to create opaqueness around their tipping to the point that last year Drivers were handing out pamphlets explaining how to remove the "Service Fee" (which nobody but Instacart gets) to tip the drivers was a huge red flag. Removing the service fee was on a 2nd page you had to go to and by default I believe was 10% of your order. If you've never used Instacart the groceries in my experience have been quite a bit more expensive than they'd be in stores so they're making revenue on that end already.
I started using them a bit again this year and now there's only a "Driver Tip" section with I believe a hard locked in service fee. Does the shopper get the tip as well? Is the driver the shopper as well now? In my situation the shopper is doing FAR more work than the driver. I want to tip the people well because I know Instacart doesn't pay well, but I don't want to give a $26 tip for $130 in groceries (which is usually 3-4 bags) going to the person who only spent 10 minutes in a car to drop my groceries off at my front door (and Instacart drivers never read the Delivery notes, I've had to walk out and walk them over to me each time last year that I ordered).
Is the tip split between the shopper and the driver? It only says "Driver Tip".
Everything just seems to be disgustingly opaque with this company and I really do not feel right even using it anymore so I've used it incredibly sparingly (maybe 3 times last year) as of late.
edit: I just checked, there's an info icon and it says 100% of the tip goes to the driver. So should I not tip based on the entire process of shopping and delivery? I don't even want to use this app anymore because I shouldn't have to stop and waste time considering these things.
This company just screams deceptive to me. Guess I'll be done with it.