Instacart Agrees to $5 Million Settlement Over U.S. Hiring Discrimination Allegations

Instacart has agreed to a $5 million settlement with two U.S. federal agencies over allegations that it discriminated against American job applicants while recruiting for positions tied to the employment-based immigration process. The agreement includes a $4 million fund for affected applicants and $1 million in civil penalties paid to the federal government.

The Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the resolution Tuesday, October 20. The agencies said Maplebear Inc., which operates as Instacart, gave preferential treatment to workers holding temporary employment visas through recruitment procedures that made it harder for U.S. workers to seek certain jobs. The allegations concern citizenship-status discrimination under the Immigration and Nationality Act and national-origin discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Central to the case was an application requirement that differed from Instacart’s usual hiring process. The agencies said applicants for positions advertised under the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, program had to send applications by physical mail, even though the company ordinarily accepted electronic applications. According to the Justice Department’s announcement, many U.S. workers who did apply were not considered in time.

Why the paper-application requirement mattered

PERM is an early step that employers generally must complete when seeking to sponsor foreign workers for employment-based permanent residence. It is designed to establish whether qualified U.S. workers are available for a particular job before an employer can proceed with the relevant immigration petition. That makes the way employers advertise openings and receive applications part of the program’s central safeguards, rather than an incidental human-resources choice.

The U.S. Department of Labor explains that labor certification requires a determination that there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available for the position in the area of intended employment. The department also must consider whether employing a foreign worker would adversely affect wages and working conditions for similarly employed U.S. workers.

The discrimination allegations against Instacart arose from the gap between how PERM jobs and ordinary vacancies were handled. A requirement to mail a paper application can create an additional step for candidates accustomed to online recruiting. Investigators said the resulting process hindered timely consideration of U.S. applicants, which matters when an employer is expected to make a good-faith effort to identify domestic candidates.

The two agencies pursued related but legally distinct concerns. The Justice Department addressed alleged discrimination on the basis of citizenship status, while the EEOC examined alleged discrimination based on American national origin. Both focused on recruitment for PERM positions, not a finding that every Instacart hiring decision or the company’s entire application system was discriminatory.

How the $5 million settlement is divided

The largest part of the agreement is a $4 million settlement fund intended to compensate people affected by the recruitment practices between December 2023 and February 2026. The agencies say the fund is designed to cover individuals who applied for the relevant positions and those who were deterred from applying. Its purpose is separate from the $1 million civil penalty, which will be paid to the United States.

A claims administrator will oversee the compensation process, contact people who may qualify and decide eligibility for back pay and compensatory damages. The agencies have not published a final count of eligible claimants or a fixed amount that each person will receive. That means the $4 million figure should not be read as a guaranteed individual payout or as evidence that all potentially affected workers have already been identified.

The announcement also provides an interim route for people who believe they were affected. Until a claims administrator establishes a dedicated contact address, the Justice Department and EEOC have asked applicants and people discouraged from applying to write to Instacart@eeoc.gov. The agencies say they will share that information with the administrator so the claims process can reach potential claimants.

The financial terms are accompanied by obligations aimed at how future job opportunities are presented. Although the headline amount is $5 million, the settlement is not solely a payment to the government: most of the stated amount is reserved for possible worker compensation. The publicly released summary does not provide a timetable for final distributions, so the administrators’ review will be important in determining who receives money.

Instacart must change PERM hiring procedures

Under the agreement, Instacart must post PERM positions on its public careers website and allow U.S. workers to submit electronic applications. Those changes directly address the different application routes identified by investigators. They are intended to make the relevant openings visible and accessible through the same kind of online channels that job seekers use for other vacancies.

Instacart must also revise its PERM-related employment policies and train relevant personnel each year on the anti-discrimination requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Title VII. The annual-training provision appears in the settlement summary released by the Justice Department, alongside requirements for oversight of the company’s recruiting practices.

That oversight includes appointing a monitor for Instacart’s PERM program and providing reports on compliance with the agreement. These are ongoing requirements, not just one-time changes to a job application form. They give the government a way to assess whether the new recruiting procedures are actually followed after the settlement is announced.

The distinctions are important for employers using PERM. Certification depends on an assessment of whether qualified domestic workers are available, and that assessment is only meaningful if the recruiting process gives those workers a fair opportunity to participate. In Instacart’s case, the agencies said the manner of accepting applications was part of the alleged unequal treatment.

A wider federal focus on immigration-related recruitment

The Justice Department described the Instacart agreement as its fifteenth settlement since the department relaunched the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative in 2025. The program targets employers accused of unlawfully favoring temporary visa holders over U.S. workers. The EEOC said this was its fourth publicly announced settlement involving allegations of discrimination against workers of American national origin since 2025.

The enforcement effort has included other technology employers. In August, the Justice Department announced a separate settlement with OpenAI after alleging that its PERM recruitment used paper applications while regular hiring accepted online submissions. That earlier case involved its own facts and resolution; it provides context for the government’s attention to differences between immigration-related recruiting and standard hiring practices.

The Instacart announcement sets out the agencies’ allegations and the agreed remedy. It does not, by itself, establish that a court found Instacart liable after a trial, and the announced terms should not be mistaken for a judgment about unrelated job openings. The immediate steps laid out by officials are to bring PERM hiring into the company’s public online application process and begin identifying potential recipients of the compensation fund.