Six Questions on the Instacart Hiring Settlement

On Tuesday, the Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a five million dollar settlement with Maplebear Inc., the company behind Instacart, over allegations that its hiring practices discriminated against American workers, the department said. The Instacart hiring settlement centers on how the company recruited for jobs tied to a federal visa sponsorship program.

At the center of the Instacart hiring settlement is the Permanent Labor Certification process, known as PERM, which lets employers sponsor temporary visa holders for permanent residency after making a good-faith effort to recruit qualified Americans first. Investigators said Instacart favored workers holding temporary employment visas in PERM recruiting. The agencies said the company required American applicants for PERM-listed jobs to mail in paper applications, even though its standard hiring process accepts electronic ones, leaving many qualified applicants unconsidered in time, the Associated Press reported.

This Instacart hiring settlement quiz asks six questions about the deal, with four options each and the answers at the bottom. Pick an answer before scrolling to the reveals, and no searching.

The questions

Four options, one correct answer. Every question in this Instacart hiring settlement quiz comes from the agencies' announcements and reporting on them.

One. The Justice Department and the EEOC announced a five million dollar settlement with Maplebear Inc. What consumer brand does Maplebear operate? A) DoorDash. B) Instacart. C) Uber Eats. D) Shipt.

Two. The five million dollar total breaks into two parts. How is the money divided? A) Four million dollars for affected applicants and one million in civil penalties. B) Two and a half million each for the DOJ and the EEOC. C) Five million dollars paid directly to shoppers. D) Three million in penalties and two million for applicants.

Three. What hiring practice did investigators single out? A) Requiring American applicants to mail paper applications while standard hiring used electronic ones. B) Paying delivery shoppers below minimum wage. C) Refusing to hire anyone over forty. D) Charging applicants a fee to apply.

Four. The case centered on the Permanent Labor Certification process, known as PERM. What does PERM let employers do? A) Hire unlimited seasonal workers. B) Sponsor temporary visa holders for permanent residency after recruiting Americans first. C) Skip background checks for executives. D) Pay below-market wages legally.

Five. The settlement covers people who applied for the affected jobs, or were discouraged from applying, during which window? A) January twenty twenty to March twenty twenty-two. B) June twenty twenty-one to August twenty twenty-three. C) December twenty twenty-three to February twenty twenty-six. D) October twenty twenty-four to October twenty twenty-six.

Six. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon announced the deal alongside the EEOC. How did she describe the resolution? A) The fifteenth settlement under her leadership to protect American workers. B) A routine paperwork update. C) A payment program for shoppers. D) The end of all hiring investigations.

The answers

The answers to this Instacart hiring settlement quiz are below, with a note on where each fact came from.

One. B. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, together with the EEOC, announced the five million dollar settlement with Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, the San Francisco-based online delivery service, the department said.

Two. A. Under the Instacart hiring settlement, Maplebear will pay one million dollars in civil penalties and up to four million dollars to affected people who applied for jobs between December twenty twenty-three and February twenty twenty-six, the Associated Press reported, via Zark News.

Three. A. The agencies said Instacart burdened American applicants by requiring them to physically mail applications for PERM-listed jobs, while its standard recruitment process accepts electronic applications, the Associated Press reported.

Four. B. PERM lets employers sponsor temporary visa holders for permanent resident status if they first make a good-faith effort to recruit American workers, the Associated Press reported.

Five. C. The fund covers people who applied, or were deterred from applying, between December twenty twenty-three and February twenty twenty-six, the Associated Press reported.

Six. A. Dhillon said the resolution marked the fifteenth settlement agreement the Civil Rights Division had reached under her leadership to protect American workers, the Justice Department said. She added that the department is "holding companies who prefer workers with temporary employment visas accountable."

The Instacart hiring settlement goes beyond the money. The company agreed to post job openings available to foreign workers on its public website and to accept electronic applications from Americans, the Associated Press reported. The fund is for job applicants, not shoppers: nothing in either agency's announcement says a delivery shopper will be paid for shopping, according to a breakdown published by GetOutOfDebt.org. Related reading: NYC's Delivery Pay Law Put Two Billion Dollars in Workers' Pockets and Most Gig Workers Now Call It Their Main Income, according to our earlier reporting.