Instacart shoppers

· founded 2012

documented benefits (6)

Guaranteed earnings floor	SEATTLE ONLY. Shoppers working in Seattle are covered by the City's App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance (SMC 8.37, effective 13 January 2024): a covered network company must pay the greater of a per-minute plus per-mile amount, or a flat per-offer minimum. For 2026 that is $0.47 per minute and $0.80 per mile, or $5.34 per offer (2025: $0.45 / $0.77 / $5.20; 2024: $0.44 / $0.74 / $5.00). The ordinance also carries a right to upfront disclosure of offer information before you accept. This is Seattle city law, not an Instacart policy.
Benefits for contractors	SEATTLE ONLY. Under Seattle's App-Based Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance (SMC 8.39, in force from 1 May 2023 and extended to all app-based workers on 13 January 2024), a shopper working for a network company with more than 250 workers accrues one day of paid sick and safe time for every 30 days with at least one work-related stop in Seattle. It is paid at the worker's 'average daily compensation', recalculated monthly, and can be used in 24-hour increments for illness, a doctor's appointment, caring for a family member, domestic violence, or a school closure. No equivalent exists for Instacart shoppers outside the handful of cities and states that legislated it.
How you are engaged	Instacart's own words: full-service shoppers in the US are INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, paid per batch rather than per hour, with the amount depending on order size, driving distance and the effort of shopping and delivering. Shoppers keep 100% of customer tips and can cash out earnings in as little as two hours. Instacart states the flexibility explicitly and states the consequence just as explicitly - there is no guaranteed volume of work, so 'total earnings potential depends on the individual'.
No experience needed	No experience and no qualifications are asked for, but there are four hard gates: you must be at least 18, legally authorised to work in the US, able to lift up to 40lbs (18kg) without accommodation, and have regular access to a reliable car and a smartphone that can run the Shopper app. Sign-up needs a driver's licence, a social security number and a bank account. Under-18s cannot do this work, and neither can anyone without a car - which rules it out as a first job for a lot of the people it looks like it would suit.
Works around classes	Instacart's model is order-by-order rather than shift-based: shoppers see batches available in their area and take only the ones they want, so there is nothing to fit around a class timetable. Instacart's own framing is that once approved you 'start making money on your own schedule'. The trade-off is the one every gig platform carries - the hours are yours, and so is the risk that there are no batches worth taking when you are free.
Schedule protection	SEATTLE. In Seattle only, the flexibility is legally protected rather than contractual: the App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance gives covered workers the right to access the platform without limitation (except for health and safety), the right NOT to be penalised for limiting their availability or refusing offers, and the right to cancel an offer with cause. That is the protection that stops batch-acceptance scoring being used against a shopper who says no. It is Seattle city law and applies nowhere else.

notable perks

Cart Star has three tiers, each earned inside a calendar quarter and lost at the end of it: Gold Cart at 20 completed orders with a Standard shopping-quality score, Platinum Cart at 100 orders with a Good score, Diamond Cart at 300 orders with a Good score — all three also require a 4.7+ customer rating. Orders reset to zero every quarter.
Cash back per gallon of gas through Upside and discounted oil changes through CarAdvise at every Cart Star tier. The CarAdvise discount refreshes quarterly and does not roll over — use it inside the quarter or lose it.
Priority access to batches, ranked by tier: Diamond shoppers see batches before everyone else and can see them before stores open. SEATTLE ONLY EXCLUSION — "Based on Seattle Office of Labor Standards requirements, priority access is not available in Seattle", where batch access is instead based on distance to store, shopping quality and rating.
Backup Care through Care.com at PLATINUM AND DIAMOND only: $1 per hour for in-home care and $10 per day for in-centre care, covering 4 days of care per quarter for children, seniors (in-network only) and pets. Unused days do not roll over.
Free Instacart+ membership (unlimited $0 delivery fees on your own orders) — DIAMOND CART ONLY, and it lapses at the end of the quarter unless you re-qualify.
Platinum Protection: a shopper with 4,000 lifetime completed orders, a Good quality score and a 4.7 rating "never drops below Platinum Cart status, maintaining access to Platinum Cart rewards for life".
Recognition inside the customer app: customers see highlights of your experience while you shop their order and before they rate you or adjust the tip.
Everyday perks that need no tier: "all shoppers continue to have access to everyday shopper perks like Cuvrd and Merit America" (Cuvrd is occupational-accident insurance; Merit America is free career retraining), accessed in the Shopper app.
Cart Star rewards are taxable to the shopper: "Shoppers are responsible for all federal, state, and local taxes", and Instacart may report the retail value of certain rewards to the IRS on a Form 1099.
Shopper Rewards Card (a Branch/Lead Bank Mastercard business debit card): free automatic payout after every batch, 1% cash back on gas and EV charging for all shoppers rising to 3% for Diamond Cart, up to 4% total with Mastercard Easy Savings at select stations, capped at $100 cash back per month, pump-only and only if you select Credit or bypass the PIN. NOT AVAILABLE IN CANADA.
Shopper Rewards Card extras: up to 4% cash rebates on eligible hotel and restaurant purchases, and 8 free ATM withdrawals a month at 55,000+ ATMs — after which each withdrawal costs $3.50.

the legal floor where they are

Set by law, not by Instacart shoppers. It applies to every employer in CA.

IVF cycles the state covers	California requires IVF from 1 January 2026, and only from large employers. SB 729 (2024) rewrote Health and Safety Code § 1374.55 so that a large group health care service plan contract 'issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, shall provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and fertility services, including a maximum of three completed oocyte retrievals with unlimited embryo transfers', following ASRM guidelines and using single embryo transfer where medically appropriate. Large group means 100 or more employees. Small group plans need only be OFFERED the coverage rather than provide it, religious employers are excluded, Medi-Cal managed care is exempt, and CalPERS plans are delayed to 1 July 2027. The original 1 July 2025 date was pushed back a budget trailer bill, AB 116 (2025). THE LIMIT THAT DECIDES WHETHER THIS REACHES YOU: a state insurance mandate binds only fully insured plans. A self-funded employer plan is governed federally under ERISA and is preempted, and KFF's 2025 employer survey puts 67% of covered workers — 80% at firms of 200 or more — in a self-funded plan. At most large California employers this law therefore does not apply, and the fertility benefit on the page is the company's own choice. (Senate Bill 729 (2024), which repealed and added Section 1374.55 of the Health and Safety Code and amended Section 10119.6 of the Insurance Code; the operative date was moved from 1 July 2025 to 1 January 2026 by Assembly Bill 116 (2025).)
Adoption leave the law gives	12 workweeks of UNPAID job-protected leave in any 12-month period on the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, and only for employees who meet the FMLA eligibility test. There is no federal paid adoption leave. (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(B) and 2612(c); eligibility at 29 U.S.C. 2611(2) and (4). Quoted from the 2023 edition of the US Code.)
Pay when you are ill	No federal law requires any paid sick leave. The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, and the FMLA gives 12 workweeks of UNPAID job-protected leave in any 12-month period for a serious health condition, and only for employees who meet the FMLA eligibility test. Any paid sick time comes from a state or city law, or from the employer's own choice. (Fair Labor Standards Act, per the Department of Labor's statement on payment for time not worked; Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(D) and 2612(c). Quoted from the 2023 edition of the US Code on govinfo.gov.)

Every claim above is sourced and dated. See sources on the full page.

Work at Instacart shoppers and something here is wrong or out of date? Tell us at hello@perks.global and we will check it.