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Pizza Delivery Drivers Victim To Wage And Hour Violations

For many Americans, the back-up dinner plan is having a pizza delivered.  As a relatively cheap and easy substitute for cooking or eating out, many fail to recognize the challenges a delivery driver faces getting that pizza to their front door.  A delivery driver is forced to navigate the roads, and often in unfavorable weather conditions.  The delivery drivers take on this often dangerous task of quickly getting your pizza to the door in exchange for a shockingly low hourly rate.  In fact, many pizza franchises that employ delivery drivers utilize a tip credit to satisfy their minimum wage requirements.  A tip credit permits an employer to pay an employee below the minimum wage if they regularly and customarily receive tips.

Currently, the Federal Minimum wage rate is $7.25 per hour.  Many states have increased that rate by state legislation.  The general idea of a tip credit is that the employee’s tips will bring their hourly rate above what the law requires the minimum hourly rate to be.  However, this doesn’t always happen.  Particularly, in the case of pizza delivery drivers.

It is customary to tip the server 15% to 20% when dining out, however, pizza delivery drivers don’t always receive the same gratuity.   They brave the hazards of driving to our homes to bring our food, but are too often tipped poorly – or not at all.  Additionally, the driver incurs vehicle expenses in getting the pizza to your door.  Often, they are provided with insufficient or no vehicle reimbursement expenses.  This creates the perfect storm for a minimum wage violation and can result in an unlawful kick-back to the employer.

In recent years, several large pizza delivery companies have been implicated in wage and hour lawsuits that have sought to recover millions of dollars in wages on behalf of deliver drivers.

The Wage Authority Group is now interviewing pizza delivery drivers who are potentially the victims of unlawful wage and hour practices. Contact our attorneys today to schedule an interview.

 

Image link: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/2009-03-20_Papa_John%27s_Pizza_out_for_delivery_in_Durham.jpg

Grubhub’s Win in California Wage Lawsuit May Embolden Gig Economy Companies to Violate Labor Laws

Employee or independent contractor? That is the question for many around the country who work in the “gig economy” for companies like Uber, Handy, HelloTech, and Zeel. This is an issue the lawyers at the Wage Authority Group must frequently assess, as most federal and state wage-and-hour laws only apply to employees, not independent contractors.

On February 8, 2018, a California court issued one of the first decisions addressing whether a worker in the gig economy—in this case a GrubHub driver–was an employee or independent contractor.

Applying California law, the court found the GrubHub driver to be an independent contractor, based on a variety of factors including:

  • Grubhub did not control how he made the deliveries — whether by car, motorcycle, scooter or bicycle;
  • Grubhub also did not control the driver’s appearance while he was making Grubhub deliveries;
  • The driver was not required to have any Grubhub signage on his car and in fact did not have any such signage;
  • Grubhub did not require the driver to undergo any particular training or orientation;
  • The driver also worked for other gig economy companies, including Lyft, Uber and another meal delivery service, Postmates.
  • The driver drove for these companies, including Grubhub, because the flexible scheduling allowed him to pursue his acting career.

The court noted that some factors weighed in favor of the driver being an employee, including the fact that the job required no special skills and that the delivery service was part of GrubHub’s regular business.

Nonetheless, the judge concluded that “While some factors weigh in favor of an employment relationship, Grubhub’s lack of all necessary control over [the driver’s] work, including how he performed deliveries and even whether or for how long, along with other factors persuade the Court that the contractor classification was appropriate.”

The court’s ruling does not apply to the gig economy as a whole, but some company’s may take it that way, and attempt to classify workers as independent contractors even when they exert far more control over them than Grubhub does over its drivers.

The legal landscape is evolving. The California Supreme Court is considering adopting a more protective test for employee status. One test the court may adopt is New Jersey’s so-called ABC test, which presumes workers are employees unless a business can show a worker is free from its supervision, works outside the usual course or place of business, and works “in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.”

Unfortunately, there is no app that tells gig economy workers whether they are protected under applicable labor laws. If you are interested in learning more, stay tuned for continuing coverage of these issues here at OwedUnpaidWages, and always feel free to contact the attorneys at the Wage Authority Group.