Dive Brief:
- All of Shipt's more than 200,000 "shoppers" — the term for contracted workers at the Target-owned, same-day delivery marketplace — will be eligible to receive a Thanksgiving cash bonus of between $50 and $300, the company announced in a press release Monday.
- The amount of each bonus, which will be available between Nov. 25 and 30, will depend on the worker's number of grocery shops completed and the market that they serve.
- The bonus announcement comes amid expectations of demand spikes for online grocery shopping during the holiday season. The delivery platform also has plans to bring on another 100,000 gig workers for the holiday season.
Dive Insight:
Workers can track the progress of their bonus in the company app and "the specific bonus available in their metro area," Shipt noted in its announcement. The amount Shipt Shoppers will receive will be calculated by an algorithm within the app that will take into account both "shops completed" and the demand in the particular market that a worker serves.
The passage of California’s Proposition 22 last week, a major win for third-party delivery services, means that delivery companies including Instacart and Shipt will not be required to reclassify independent contractors as employees. With that prospect no longer in the picture, Shipt’s finances are much more hospitable to its plans to onboard another 100,000 contracted workers by New Year’s and to offer the Thanksgiving bonus.
Like its online and brick-and-mortar grocery competitors, Shipt added thousands of workers in March and April to cope with spikes in online orders and app downloads.
During the first wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic in April, Shipt CEO Kelly Caruso said that the company’s "most active" gig workers were issued hazard pay bonuses and individual safety kits, according to the Los Angeles Times. Shipt Shoppers who filled more than 50 orders in March received a $100 bonus and those who completed more than 100 received $200, the paper reported.
These measures failed to abate simmering discontent among contracted workers at Shipt and other companies, culminating in a national walkout of Instacart, Amazon, Shipt, Target and Whole Foods workers in early May.
As the nation heads into what medical experts have described as a "dark winter" as the pandemic continues, the risks placed on delivery gig workers may renew calls for more robust hazard pay. On Monday, the U.S. surpassed 10 million total coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, reporting over 100,000 daily infections for the fifth consecutive day.
