2019-02-13 Instacart Shopper National Call with Working Washington
You know I love to post about all kinds of music (UV - Ultimate Variety Radio is a radio station, after all) and any other aspect of the entertainment industry. That's not all this page is about, to me. It gives me an opportunity to speak to my audience about subjects that mean something to me.
UVR is my hobby and working in the gig industry has been my main source of income for a few years. I became an #independentcontractor for Instacart, in December 2017. I loved it! The pay was great and I loved shopping for my customers. Plus, when I was (and still do) dealing with an assortment of health issues, it allowed me to work a flexible schedule and I wouldn't get fired (again), if I needed to take time off, last minute.
Over the next 10 months, I saw a 75% decrease in my pay. On November 5, 2018, Instacart drastically changed the way my pay was calculated and it resulted in another 40-50% decrease in my already pitiful pay.
Since I loved shopping for my customers, I decided to stick with Instacart... in spite of their shady human resources practices (as related to their independent contractors)... because a national movement was beginning to come together. I wanted to take part in something that would make a difference in the lives of thousands of people.
While it has taken longer than I expected for Instacart to make improvements to their new pay scheme, they did announce within the past week that they would no longer use the customer's tip to make-up our pay for each order shopped and delivered. That's a great step in the right direction, but it's far from making a commitment to pay us a fair wage for shopping for and delivering our customer's groceries.
The concession that Instacart recently made was due, in large part, to efforts being made on shoppers' behalf by Working Washington, a labor advocacy group based in Washington state.
Thank you, Emily and Sage (from Working Washington), in addition to Matt, Vanessa, and Sarah, for organizing tonight's conferenc
2011-08-20 "East Bound and Down" by Rick Monroe
Jagermeister presents Get UR Country On Tour, at Wild Wing Cafe, in Raleigh, NC.