> “Based on your feedback, today we’re launching new measures to more fairly and competitively compensate all our shoppers,” Mehta wrote. “Tips should always be separate from Instacart’s contribution to shopper compensation.”
> Instacart also said it will compensate workers affected by the previously policy. “For example, if a shopper was paid $6 by Instacart, to compensate for our mistake, he or she will receive an additional $4 from Instacart,” Mehta wrote.
But they're cutting shopper compensation at the same time!
> In addition, Instacart also said it would adjust the minimum pay per delivery to between $7 and $10 for deliveries for which the driver buys and delivers the groceries, and $5 for delivery-only jobs. Previously, Instacart guaranteed $10 per delivery, but sometimes included customer tips in that amount.
What shady behaviour! I'm guessing Instacart did the math on average tips and figured out that with a $5 delivery guarantee + tips shoppers would be back up to around $10 on average.
Edit: Yup, that's exactly what happened.
> “With an average tip of $5, our customers regularly recognize shoppers with tips for the services they provide."
> “Based on your feedback, today we’re launching new measures to more fairly and competitively compensate all our shoppers,” Mehta wrote. “Tips should always be separate from Instacart’s contribution to shopper compensation.”
> Instacart also said it will compensate workers affected by the previously policy. “For example, if a shopper was paid $6 by Instacart, to compensate for our mistake, he or she will receive an additional $4 from Instacart,” Mehta wrote.