Wage Theft at Subway Restaurants

Over 20 Subway locations have been accused of wage and hour violations. The multinational sandwich franchise is notorious for its employee violations, having faced more than 1,100 investigations spanning from 2000 to 2013 according to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Combined, these cases amount to about 17,000 wage theft violations.

In September 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered 14 Bay Area Subways, owned by John and Jessica Meza, to pay employees nearly $1 million in back wages and damages. Federal investigators found employees were failed to be paid wages regularly and were issued hundreds of bad checks. Furthermore, tips left by customers were pocketed by the Mezas, violating the tip pool requirement.

Another Subway location in New York City violated the federal minimum wage, overtime, and record keeping requirements by not compensating employees for training time, failing to pay overtime, and failing to keep accurate records of the total hours worked by employees. NPK Foods Inc., which operated the Subway at 334 Grand St., also pressured an employee to sign a document falsely claiming there were no violations and that they had been paid in full, violating the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provisions. The owners of the Lower East Side franchise paid the former employee $10,000 in punitive damages $3,907 in back wages and liquidated damages to 18 employees in 2023. The recovery compensated 18 employees who were denied the required minimum wage and three employees who did not receive the overtime wages.

Just this week, a group of 10 Subway restaurants under common ownership in Washington state paid more than $218,000 in back pay, damages and fines for denying workers their full tips and wages. The restaurants violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when managers and workers took part in the tip pool, depriving 100 workers of tips left on credit cards by customers. According to the Department of Labor, the franchise locations also edited time records to reduce hours worked over 40 to fall under the overtime rate threshold.

If you believe you are the victim of wage theft, feel free to call the attorneys at Pechman Law Group, 212-583-9500. We have secured over 30 million dollars for workers who have been cheated out of their minimum wage and overtime pay.

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