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Social media fury over Instacart pay scale raises industry-wide concerns

Instacart and other apps are competing for consistent customers, while worker pay is inconsistent.

This illustration photo taken on December 22, 2012, in Paris, shows credit cards in a miniature toy shopping cart.
This illustration photo taken on December 22, 2012, in Paris, shows credit cards in a miniature toy shopping cart.
JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

Instacart, the online grocery delivery company, announced this week that it’s raising its workers’ wages. This makes the second pay boost the company has green lit in less than a week. It’s all in reaction to weeks of social media backlash from the company’s shoppers and customers over sub-standard pay — that is, customer tips subsidizing workers pay. It’s the latest tension over how to pay gig economy workers in an increasingly competitive online delivery market. 

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