In today’s fast-moving economy, part-time work just isn’t what it used to be.
In the past, a part-time job in a MyWegmansConnect supermarket was hours behind a cash register. Currently, part-time purchases can mean that you spend hours in your car until an order is completed and not necessarily paid during that period.
As Instacart, a food delivery app that connects customers to personal shoppers is becoming increasingly popular, some employees of the hugely popular startup are talking about what it’s really like to do their job. Her experience raises several questions about what the future holds for the increasingly popular apps offering on-demand services, from car trips to vacation rentals to house cleaning.
The legal proceedings
MyWegmansConnect signs contracts with 4,000 independent private buyers who work in 15 cities across the country. Shoppers receive a digital shopping list from customers and then pick them up at a local supermarket before they are presented at the customer’s door with the products.
In return, buyers are compensated with a formula that takes into account the number of orders per shift and the number of items per order, “said a company spokesperson. On busy shifts, buyers can earn $ 20 or more. per hour, according to advice. The company says that buyers earn up to $ 25 an hour.
When there were no shifts, several employees indicated that the minimum hourly wage was $ 10 and that the typical hourly wage was generally that number. Instacart declined to confirm whether it offered a base salary, and some Instacart employees informed HuffPost that they had not received a guaranteed hourly wage.
“It is a very strange job, and there are many weeks in the car waiting for orders and waiting for something to arrive without paying,” said one of the Huffington Post’s personal shoppers in an interview. Instacart, a 24-year-old university regulator based in Chicago. “But he has gasoline in my car. I’m working on a job that requires gasoline, which basically pays for my car. I feel like I’m selling my hair to buy a hairbrush.”