Instacart Pays $5 Million to Settle U.S. Worker Discrimination Claims

Instacart will pay $5,000,000 to settle federal claims that it discriminated against U.S. workers in hiring. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the deal Tuesday with Maplebear Inc., the San Francisco company that does business as Instacart.

The case turns on the Permanent Labor Certification process, known as PERM. The Associated Press reports the program lets employers hire temporary visa holders and sponsor them for permanent residence, as long as they first make a good-faith effort to hire U.S. workers. The agencies say Instacart required that applications for its PERM jobs be physically mailed to the company, while its standard job recruitment process accepted electronic applications, according to the AP. The Justice Department says the evidence showed the practices intentionally discriminated against U.S. workers and created extra burdens for them.

Under the settlement, Instacart will set up a fund of up to $4,000,000 to compensate applicants and people who were deterred from applying between December 2023 and February 2026. The company will also pay $1,000,000 in civil penalties to the United States, the department says. The agreement requires Instacart to stop restricting job consideration based on citizenship status without a lawful reason.

Instacart said Tuesday that its hiring practices complied with U.S. laws and regulations, but that it agreed to settle so it could stay focused on its business, the AP reports. The company said it is proud to be a U.S.-based grocery technology platform that employs thousands of American workers.

The Justice Department says this is the fifteenth settlement since it relaunched its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative in 2025. Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division said the record shows the department is holding accountable companies that prefer workers with temporary employment visas. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said the commission will act when employers put up unlawful barriers that harm American workers. The AP notes that Apple agreed to a $25 million settlement over similar claims in 2023 and Facebook paid $14 million in 2021.