Katie Canales/Business Insider
A Caviar employee rides their bike down Market St. in San Francisco, California, on Saturday, January 26, 2018.
- DoorDash is under fire for an opaque tipping system that customers are saying is misleading.
- In some cases, tips count toward the company's guaranteed minimum pay for orders, instead of being added on top of the check total.
- A company spokesperson told Business Insider that this is an isolated case, and that tips are usually in addition to the minimum.
- We asked every delivery startup we could think of about their tipping policies. Here's what they said.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Not all DoorDash tips actually go to the courier on top of an order's total.
The company's opaque system, which went viral this week after a New York Times reporter worked for the company and wrote about his experience, has now come under fire from critics and customers who call their tipping system misleading.
In short, every DoorDash order comes with a guaranteed minimum earnings for the worker who completes the job. If the total ends up being less than that guarantee, then DoorDash kicks in the rest of the money. But in a small number of cases, the tip can also help make up that difference.
Read more: DoorDash uses a shady tactic that stiffs workers out of some tips and customers are furious
In light of that news, we asked some of the world's most prominent gig economy startups, many of which function almost exactly like DoorDash, about their tipping policies.
Here's what the companies said:
