Iowa Capital Dispatch
Casey’s General Store is denying allegations that the company’s pizza-delivery drivers are being shortchanged on their wages.
The company, which operates roughly 2,300 stores in 16 states, allegedly pays its drivers a flat rate of $2 per delivery, but doesn’t track drivers’ actual vehicle expenses or make any attempt to reimburse drivers for gas and other specific expenses tied to the use of their cars.
According to a lawsuit filed last fall in federal court on behalf of drivers, the flat-rate payment plan shortchanges the Casey’s drivers at a rate of 23 cents per mile — a calculation that is based on a $2 payment for delivery runs that tend to average six miles. The payment equates to 33 cents per mile, which is 23 cents less than the IRS standard mileage rate of 56 cents per mile, the lawsuit claims.
Assuming the Casey’s drivers average three six-mile deliveries each hour, they are, in effect, “kicking back” to their employer $4.14 per hour from their own earnings ($1.38 per delivery, multiplied by three deliveries per hour), the lawsuit claims.
The drivers’ hourly pay is roughly equal to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the lawsuit alleges, and so the effect of the “kickback” is that the drivers’ net pay is significantly less than the minimum wage.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jolene Greever of Davis County, a Casey’s delivery driver who has worked for the company since 2019, and all other similarly situated employees of the...
Indian-origin urologist Jitesh Patel will have to pay $14 million to settle allegations against him that he defrauded healthcare programs by performing unnecessary procedures on his patients. An e...