Subway Has Reportedly Violated Wage Laws More Than Any Other Fast Food Chain
Subway franchisees have been found in violation of wage and hour rules in more than 1,100 investigations from 2000 to 2013, CNNMoney's Annalyn Kurtz reports.
"Each investigation can lead to multiple violations and fines. Combined, these cases found about 17,000 Fair Labor Standards Act violations and resulted in franchisees having to reimburse Subway workers more than $3.8 million over the years," Kurtz writes.
McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts are the next most frequent violators of wage and hour laws. Subway has more than 26,000 domestic locations - more than any other fast food restaurant. McDonald's has 14,276 locations and Dunkin' Donuts has 7,700.
Examples of violations include deducting money for 30-minute lunch breaks that employees never took and forcing workers to pay for uniforms - which qualifies as a violation if the expense results in workers getting paid below the minimum wage.
McDonald's franchise owners were recently hit with a series of worker lawsuits concerning wage and hour violations. One of the accused franchise owners has agreed to pay nearly $500,000 to current and former employees as a result of one of the lawsuits.
McDonald's said in an e-mailed statement to CNNMoney that it is committed to paying employees correctly.
"When McDonald's learns of pay concerns in restaurants which we own and operate, we review the concerns and take appropriate action to resolve them," the company said. "We trust that our independent owner-operators do the same. McDonald's and our owner-operators employ separately but in total over 750,000 workers in the United States, and we caution against drawing broad conclusions based on the actions of a few."
Dunkin' Donuts also responded to the article, telling CNNMoney, that it takes "these matters seriously and [is] committed to the well-being and fair treatment of all crew members."
Subway declined to comment to CNNMoney.