1) $15/hr + expenses

There are a lot of specific issues with the way Instacart pays, and a lot of changes we need to see.

But most of them connect to a bottom line, a basic way to measure how they’re doing overall — and that’s how much you’re getting paid for your time. After expenses.

That’s why we’re calling for outside accountability: laws that say every job being offered by every gig company must meet the basic requirement of paying enough to make the time — and gas, and car maintenance, and other expenses — that you spend on it worth the while.

Our proposal to make that happen: requiring companies like Instacart to meet a minimum pay floor equivalent to at least a $15/hr wage, plus the average cost of expenses, for all the time you spend on an active job.

Creating a pay floor doesn’t mean getting paid only that amount — and it doesn’t mean not getting to choose which jobs you do & when. Being able to choose the jobs you want and whether they’re worth it for you to do matters. But if most of the jobs you’re being offered pay too little to be worth your time, that’s a problem. You shouldn’t have to spend all day dodging bad batches to make your pay work.

Being classified as an independent contractor shouldn’t be an excuse for companies to pay out less than the minimum wage. Creating a pay floor for contractors would be a bold step in protecting gig workers’ rights, and it’s an ambitious goal. But the concept of a pay floor of $15 for every hour on an active job for independent contractors isn’t unprecedented — a similar law for Uber & Lyft drivers was passed recently in NYC. Policymakers see the possibility of creating a law that protects the flexibility of independent contractor status, while also protecting your paycheck.

There are lots of details we need to work out, but the key idea is that companies should be paying you a rate at least equivalent to $15 for every hour on an active job, plus expenses for your work. That should be a bottom line they can’t go below.

2) Tips on top

A tip is a tip. It’s extra. It’s on top. When a customer adds a tip, they’re doing it because they want to give a little extra to the people doing the work.

Nobody wants to be tipping a $7 billion corporation.

So let’s make that real. We need a clear and sharp legal definition that tips are on top of pay. Tips are a supplement to pay, not a substitute. That’s pretty basic.

3) Transparency

Workers deserve to know what they’re being paid and why. Just like employees get a pay stub, gig workers deserve a detailed breakdown that shows the basic details of the work they’re doing: how long it took, how many miles, what you’re paid, and what “units of work” were involved — items shopped, etc.

This is a basic way to ensure real transparency for Instacart workers and people on all different apps. So we can check their work.

The beautiful thing about these three demands: Each of them alone makes a difference. And it’s even more powerful to have all these things together.

Even better: we can make this happen at all different levels. We can demand it from companies, like we’ve done and we’re continuing to do. And we can create real outside accountability for these companies by passing laws that do these three things at the city level, at the state level, and even (someday) the federal level.

And these demands connect workers across all apps — not just Instacart. And more people = more power.

There’s work to be done to get there, but right now reporters and lawmakers and lawyers want to hear from workers for a change. Instacart shoppers made that happen. There’s an opportunity to fix something big that’s broken. So let’s go big, and let’s get them to work on new laws that will deliver what we really need.