Allstocks.com's Bulletin Board Post A Reply
my profile login | register | search | faq | forum home

» Allstocks.com's Bulletin Board » Off-Topic Post, Non Stock Talk » Cheat Fresh: Subway Is The Biggest Fast Food Wage Thief » Post A Reply

Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message Icon: Icon 1     Icon 2     Icon 3     Icon 4     Icon 5     Icon 6     Icon 7    
Icon 8     Icon 9     Icon 10     Icon 11     Icon 12     Icon 13     Icon 14    
Message:

HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

 

Instant Graemlins Instant UBB Code™
Smile   Frown   Embarrassed   Big Grin   Wink   Razz  
Cool   Roll Eyes   Mad   Eek!   Confused   BadOne  
Good Luck   More Crap   Wall Bang   Were Up   Were Down    
Insert URL Hyperlink - UBB Code™   Insert Email Address - UBB Code™
Bold - UBB Code™   Italics - UBB Code™
Quote - UBB Code™   Code Tag - UBB Code™
List Start - UBB Code™   List Item - UBB Code™
List End - UBB Code™   Image - UBB Code™

What is UBB Code™?
Options


Disable Graemlins in this post.


 


T O P I C     R E V I E W
raybond  - posted
Cheat Fresh: Subway Is The Biggest Fast Food Wage Thief


By Alan Pyke on May 2, 2014 at 3:17 pm


"Cheat Fresh: Subway Is The Biggest Fast Food Wage Thief"


Share:
facebook icon twitter icon google plus icon
Share on email


subway-logo-eat-fresh-2
CREDIT: Subway

No fast food company has been caught committing wage theft as many times as Subway, according to a CNN Money review of Labor Department records.

Subway stores have been found guilty of 17,000 separate violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act stemming from over 1,100 separate investigations since the year 2000. That is the most wage and hour violations of any fast food company, although other companies would top the list on a per-location basis.

The sandwich chain’s status as America’s leading wage and hour violator comes as something of a surprise given that most of the recent focus on wage theft has centered on McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. A recent survey found that nine of every 10 workers at those chains has been denied pay for time they worked or experienced other forms of wage theft such as being made to clock out but stick around when things aren’t busy. Those companies pay their CEOs more than a thousand times better than their workers, while also overseeing rampant theft of those low wages. Fast food is a major driver of the broader wage theft epidemic, which robs more money from people each year than every store holdup and bank robbery combined.

But the Department of Labor has taken to working directly with Subway’s corporate parent company to stem the chain’s wage theft epidemic, according to CNN. That government effort highlights one of the tricky things about fighting wage theft at giant corporations. Because most fast food stores are operated by individuals using franchise agreements rather than by the brand itself, the law generally treats them as small businesses. It is hard to hold Subway Corporate legally liable for wage theft committed by its franchisees, and fast food companies in general enjoy a smokescreen against Labor Department investigators and the sorts of massive fines that recent wage theft lawsuits have produced against franchisees.

The Labor Department calls these slippery liability relationships “fissured workplaces,” and CNN reports that it is “intensifying its focus” on investigating the relationship between wage theft and franchising, independent contracting, and other liability-limiting arrangements. Such investigations could bring the federal government’s enforcement powers to bear on the wage theft epidemic in low-wage industries. Considering that state and local efforts have a limited effect even when workers manage to prove violations and win judgments, federal involvement might do much.

But it is not the only recourse for workers looking to tie localized lawbreaking to the corporations that ultimately profit from it. A series of class-action lawsuits filed in three states last month look to hold McDonald’s corporate responsible for the actions of its franchisees. The parent company installs the computers systems that franchisees use to implement their wage theft schemes, according to the lawsuits, and thus can be held legally liable.

These novel approaches to wage theft might not be necessary if companies were not so fixated on squeezing profits out of their own workers. A variety of companies have chosen to take a higher road, paying workers well above minimum wage and in some cases providing substantial health benefits as well, and proving in the process that companies don’t
 
raybond  - posted
CREDIT: Subway

The founder and CEO of Subway says a minimum wage increase wouldn’t be such a bad thing for his stores and workers and believes it should be changed so that wages rise automatically with inflation.

“I’m not concerned,” CEO Fred DeLuca said on Wednesday when CNBC asked him about minimum wage hikes. “Over the years, I’ve seen so many of these wage increases. I think it’s normal. It won’t have a negative impact hopefully, and that’s what I tell my workers.”

DeLuca’s support is noteworthy in part because of the size of his business. Subway has the most locations of any fast food chain. While a majority of small business owners support a $10.10 wage hike, major corporations of that scale typically oppose raising wages.

DeLuca had previously warned that raising the minimum wage too rapidly would be a “bad idea” that could damage businesses, while acknowledging that “minimum-wage workers deserve to make more.” At the time that he offered that warning in 2013, President Obama was proposing a minimum wage hike from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Since then, Obama has joined congressional progressives in calling for a $10.10 hourly minimum, which would nearly recoup the purchasing power low-wage workers have lost to inflation over the past 40 years.

DeLuca launched Subway nearly 39 years ago. The minimum wage then was $1.25 an hour, which would be $9.38 per hour in today’s dollars. Even after a three-step wage hike from 2008 to 2010 — the first time the minimum wage had been raised in over a decade — the minimum wage is worth 20 percent less than it was in the late 1960s. “I personally think that if I were in charge of the government, I would index the minimum wage to inflation so that way everybody knows what they can count on,” DeLuca told CNBC.

In the 15 months since DeLuca criticized proposed wage hikes as too rapid, low-wage worker strikes have spread from a handful of New York fast food stores to a hundred cities in all parts of the country, ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers to act on wages. On Wednesday, workers announced plans for strikes in 150 U.S. cities and protests in 30 other countries across six continents.

Beyond opposing higher wages, large fast food companies are often perpetrators of wage theft, which nine out of 10 fast food workers report experiencing. Subway leads the industry in wage theft violations, thanks in part to its size. “We, as a company, realize that some of our owners have not done the right thing,” DeLuca said when asked about wage theft. “The people who come to work deserve to be paid properly and there’s no excuse.”

At the same time that fast food companies fight to keep wages down and hide behind franchise agreements when discussing wage theft, their CEOs are earning ever-larger compensation packages. The fast food industry has the largest pay gap between workers and executives, with top men making 1,200 times more than their typical worker.


CREDIT: Subway

The founder and CEO of Subway says a minimum wage increase wouldn’t be such a bad thing for his stores and workers and believes it should be changed so that wages rise automatically with inflation.

“I’m not concerned,” CEO Fred DeLuca said on Wednesday when CNBC asked him about minimum wage hikes. “Over the years, I’ve seen so many of these wage increases. I think it’s normal. It won’t have a negative impact hopefully, and that’s what I tell my workers.”

DeLuca’s support is noteworthy in part because of the size of his business. Subway has the most locations of any fast food chain. While a majority of small business owners support a $10.10 wage hike, major corporations of that scale typically oppose raising wages.

DeLuca had previously warned that raising the minimum wage too rapidly would be a “bad idea” that could damage businesses, while acknowledging that “minimum-wage workers deserve to make more.” At the time that he offered that warning in 2013, President Obama was proposing a minimum wage hike from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Since then, Obama has joined congressional progressives in calling for a $10.10 hourly minimum, which would nearly recoup the purchasing power low-wage workers have lost to inflation over the past 40 years.

DeLuca launched Subway nearly 39 years ago. The minimum wage then was $1.25 an hour, which would be $9.38 per hour in today’s dollars. Even after a three-step wage hike from 2008 to 2010 — the first time the minimum wage had been raised in over a decade — the minimum wage is worth 20 percent less than it was in the late 1960s. “I personally think that if I were in charge of the government, I would index the minimum wage to inflation so that way everybody knows what they can count on,” DeLuca told CNBC.

In the 15 months since DeLuca criticized proposed wage hikes as too rapid, low-wage worker strikes have spread from a handful of New York fast food stores to a hundred cities in all parts of the country, ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers to act on wages. On Wednesday, workers announced plans for strikes in 150 U.S. cities and protests in 30 other countries across six continents.

Beyond opposing higher wages, large fast food companies are often perpetrators of wage theft, which nine out of 10 fast food workers report experiencing. Subway leads the industry in wage theft violations, thanks in part to its size. “We, as a company, realize that some of our owners have not done the right thing,” DeLuca said when asked about wage theft. “The people who come to work deserve to be paid properly and there’s no excuse.”

At the same time that fast food companies fight to keep wages down and hide behind franchise agreements when discussing wage theft, their CEOs are earning ever-larger compensation packages. The fast food industry has the largest pay gap between workers and executives, with top men making 1,200 times more than their typical worker.


CREDIT: Subway

The founder and CEO of Subway says a minimum wage increase wouldn’t be such a bad thing for his stores and workers and believes it should be changed so that wages rise automatically with inflation.

“I’m not concerned,” CEO Fred DeLuca said on Wednesday when CNBC asked him about minimum wage hikes. “Over the years, I’ve seen so many of these wage increases. I think it’s normal. It won’t have a negative impact hopefully, and that’s what I tell my workers.”

DeLuca’s support is noteworthy in part because of the size of his business. Subway has the most locations of any fast food chain. While a majority of small business owners support a $10.10 wage hike, major corporations of that scale typically oppose raising wages.

DeLuca had previously warned that raising the minimum wage too rapidly would be a “bad idea” that could damage businesses, while acknowledging that “minimum-wage workers deserve to make more.” At the time that he offered that warning in 2013, President Obama was proposing a minimum wage hike from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Since then, Obama has joined congressional progressives in calling for a $10.10 hourly minimum, which would nearly recoup the purchasing power low-wage workers have lost to inflation over the past 40 years.

DeLuca launched Subway nearly 39 years ago. The minimum wage then was $1.25 an hour, which would be $9.38 per hour in today’s dollars. Even after a three-step wage hike from 2008 to 2010 — the first time the minimum wage had been raised in over a decade — the minimum wage is worth 20 percent less than it was in the late 1960s. “I personally think that if I were in charge of the government, I would index the minimum wage to inflation so that way everybody knows what they can count on,” DeLuca told CNBC.

In the 15 months since DeLuca criticized proposed wage hikes as too rapid, low-wage worker strikes have spread from a handful of New York fast food stores to a hundred cities in all parts of the country, ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers to act on wages. On Wednesday, workers announced plans for strikes in 150 U.S. cities and protests in 30 other countries across six continents.

Beyond opposing higher wages, large fast food companies are often perpetrators of wage theft, which nine out of 10 fast food workers report experiencing. Subway leads the industry in wage theft violations, thanks in part to its size. “We, as a company, realize that some of our owners have not done the right thing,” DeLuca said when asked about wage theft. “The people who come to work deserve to be paid properly and there’s no excuse.”

At the same time that fast food companies fight to keep wages down and hide behind franchise agreements when discussing wage theft, their CEOs are earning ever-larger compensation packages. The fast food industry has the largest pay gap between workers and executives, with top men making 1,200 times more than their typical worker.
 
raybond  - posted
CREDIT: AP

Drivers and pizza cooks will share a $448,000 payout from 23 Domino’s Pizza franchise owners around New York state under a settlement announced Thursday by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The payment ends Schneiderman’s investigation into how the stores illegally deprived delivery drivers of their car maintenance payments and tips, as well as failing to pay overtime for employees who worked more than 40 hours in a week. The stores reportedly acknowledge their wage thievery in the settlement.

Thursday’s deal is the second wage theft payout from Domino’s stores in the past two months and at least the third fast food chain wage theft deal this year in New York. In February, a Domino’s franchise in New York City struck a $1.28 million settlement with 61 delivery drivers who made similar charges. Last week, Schneiderman announced a roughly half-million dollar settlement between a McDonald’s franchisee and workers at seven of his stores.

The three recent New York settlements could offer a hint of the eventual outcome in seven separate wage theft lawsuits filed earlier this month against both McDonald’s franchisees and McDonald’s corporation. Workers allege that the company and its franchise owners systematically violated their labor rights and stole their wages by forcing them to clock out and stay on site whenever a computer system that monitors labor costs in real time showed that the store was losing money, among other abuses. Those lawsuits target stores across California, Michigan, and New York.

Food court workers at Union Station in Washington, D.C. filed a complaint in January claiming they’ve had $3 million stolen from them by similar practices.

Wage theft, which is an umbrella term for any employer practice that drives worker wages below the legal minimum or otherwise deprives them of money to which they’re entitled, is by no means limited to the fast food business. Professional cheerleaders, retail distribution warehouse workers, and truck drivers at multiple American ports have all alleged wage theft in recent months.

Official complaints about wage theft are up 400 percent since the turn of the century. Employers steal more money from their workers each year than what criminals net from every store holdup and bank heist combined, according to one study.
 



Contact Us | Allstocks.com Message Board Home

© 1997 - 2021 Allstocks.com. All rights reserved.

Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2

Share