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DoorDash and Amazon Won't Change Tipping Policy After Instacart Controversy (forbes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: The tipping controversy that prompted Instacart to reverse a compensation plan to its contract workers isn't likely to go away: Rivals DoorDash and Amazon Flex are continuing to adjust driver pay based on how much they get tipped, saying doing so ensures a minimum payout. The practice, which has its roots in the way brick-and-mortar restaurants pay waitstaff, has been adapted to suit the needs of app-based delivery companies. The difference is that gig-economy workers are independent contractors, and so aren't protected by the minimum wage laws. Instacart, a $7.6 billion grocery delivery company, made a change in October 2018 that workers would receive at least $10 per delivery order. Customers and shoppers didn't realize that the tips were counting towards that minimum instead of being a bonus on top. So if someone tipped more, Instacart effectively had to pay less. That's how one Instacart delivery driver ended up with Instacart only paying 80 cents and the rest of the minimum being met with tips.
The company reversed its decision on Wednesday after public outcry, admitting that counting tips in its payout totals was "misguided" and has moved to a new pay scale that doesn't factor in tips at all. But DoorDash and Amazon Flex, the contract workforce that delivers packages for Prime Now, continued to stand their ground. DoorDash claims it has been transparent about the tips being part of its delivery driver pay since it made the change in 2017, including on a blog post on whether customers should tip, and maintains that delivery-driver retention and overall satisfaction both "increased significantly" since the change. Both DoorDash and Instacart insist that they never turned the payment dial down if someone received a large tip. Instead, both companies used an algorithm to calculate a base pay rate that would include things like time and effort it took to deliver. If that base pay plus tip fell short of the price they guaranteed, then both companies would pay out more to make sure its delivery drivers reached the payout they had been promised. But in cases where the tip plus its initial calculation reached the promised payout, then the companies would only contribute the amount that the algorithm had calculated the delivery person deserved. One simple solution if you want to make sure your tip gets into the hand of your digital delivery worker: tip in cash.
The company reversed its decision on Wednesday after public outcry, admitting that counting tips in its payout totals was "misguided" and has moved to a new pay scale that doesn't factor in tips at all. But DoorDash and Amazon Flex, the contract workforce that delivers packages for Prime Now, continued to stand their ground. DoorDash claims it has been transparent about the tips being part of its delivery driver pay since it made the change in 2017, including on a blog post on whether customers should tip, and maintains that delivery-driver retention and overall satisfaction both "increased significantly" since the change. Both DoorDash and Instacart insist that they never turned the payment dial down if someone received a large tip. Instead, both companies used an algorithm to calculate a base pay rate that would include things like time and effort it took to deliver. If that base pay plus tip fell short of the price they guaranteed, then both companies would pay out more to make sure its delivery drivers reached the payout they had been promised. But in cases where the tip plus its initial calculation reached the promised payout, then the companies would only contribute the amount that the algorithm had calculated the delivery person deserved. One simple solution if you want to make sure your tip gets into the hand of your digital delivery worker: tip in cash.
is an ideal solution if you are just tipping a merchandise delivery driver. With food orders if you tip on a card presumably some of it gets to the cooks and kitchen staff as well. Not every situation is the same.
With doordash, you pay with a credit card and assign a tip when you place your order. If that amount is visible to the driver before delivery giving a cash tip upon delivery would leave you at risk for angry drivers fucking with your food thinking they weren't getting a tip.
Don't worry, they "gamified" employment.
You can see your ratings, compare your hours worked, get feedback, and valuable XP!
Switch companies or jobs, and your XP resets to zero, just like in game!
and with bonuses, you might get a loot-box!
Some very rare loot-boxes include:
-full time employment
-healthcare
-time off
-sick days
Keep on playing, and remember to keep on paying!
Or a minimal payout, whichever one is most profitable.
What about giving them decent wages? Sure, the services will provide may be more expensive. But, then again, maybe not - after all, there is competition, right? I always find it amazing how certain employers - in particular, those in the restaurant business - have convinced the rest of Americans that it is the latter's duty to directly contribute to maximize the former's profit.
You SHOULD always tip in cash. It puts money into the pockets of the workers, and takes it out of the managers' pockets and the pockets of other grubby people who may want a cut.
Because a tip tells them that the server actually made a net positive impression, and that you are sufficiently enriched by the experience with the server you had that you are willing to reward it.
If that's never happened to you, well that's fine for you too. If you still can't understand it, then that's a limitation of your own ability to imagine things outside of your own experience, not a reflection of whether or not it shouldn't happen.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Socialism != Communism.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
As I said, the premise behind it is simply when a person has felt sufficiently enriched by their professional interactions with an individual that they are wanting to directly reward the individual above and beyond any mere legal obligation to pay for a debt that may be owed. This reward comes in the form of a tip.
So yes, there most certainly is a reason to do so.
That you may not have ever felt willing to so reward someone above and beyond whatever you felt you were legally required to do is entirely irrelevant.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Never tell a Republican that Social Security and Medicare are socialist economic policies. The cognitive dissonance would break their brains.
I've not held a job for tips, when my brother had one the way taxes were taken out was set to assume a large number of unreported cash tips. The whole thing is a big mess.
And it's exactly this reward bollocks that leads to the insane arms race that tipping has become. You have to tip above and beyond if you want to reward the exceptional, but as soon as you do that it becomes the standard and every surly grouch with a tray expects that new level. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I'm not old yet, and I can remember a time when 10% was a good tip.
It doesn't matter what "every surly grouch" expects, IMO... if the server is inattentive, is not evidently at least trying to do their best, or has otherwise left me with any kind of negative impression, I will not tip. It they are actually rude, I will talk to the manager. If society wants to judge me harshly for not tipping a server when I'm not satisfied, that's on them.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'