US Department of Labor recovers $140K in back wages for 66 delivery drivers of Londonderry, Concord pizza restaurants

MANCHESTER, NH – Pizza shops rely on drivers to make timely deliveries to their customers. These drivers depend on their employers to pay them their hard-earned wages, as the law requires. When Checkmate Pizza in Concord and Londonderry failed to deliver all the wages drivers had earned, the U.S. Department of Labor stepped in.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division has recovered $140,203 in back wages owed to 66 Checkmate Pizza employees after investigators found the employer failed to track and reimburse drivers for expenses incurred using their personal vehicles to make deliveries. Failing to reimburse these expenses resulted in numerous drivers earning less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The employer also violated overtime requirements by paying tipped workers time and one-half their direct cash wages instead of time and one-half the employees’ regular rates of pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.

“Food delivery drivers, like many restaurant workers, have remained on the frontlines since the pandemic began and deserve to be paid for all their work,” said Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Their employers are required to pay workers at least the federal minimum wage for all the hours they work, accounting for certain business expenses such as the vehicle expenses incurred by delivery drivers. We encourage other employers to heed the results of this investigation and review their pay practices to ensure they comply with the law.”

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the agency, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.