Subway

Reasons to avoid

1. Federal and state investigators have documented a multi-state pattern of wage theft at Subway franchises: 14 Bay Area locations were ordered by a federal court to pay nearly $1 million after directing children as young as 14–15 to use dangerous equipment (resulting in burns), issuing bad checks, and stealing tips; California's Labor Commissioner cited SF franchisees $1.7 million for wage manipulation targeting 81 immigrant workers; and 10 Washington state locations paid $218,000 after owners illegally pocketed employee tip pools and manipulated timesheets to avoid overtime.restaurantdive.com2023-10-02
2. The EEOC sued Subway franchises in North Carolina for creating a hostile work environment for Black employees and instructing a manager not to hire Black workers, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The case settled for $25,000 with mandatory anti-discrimination training.eeoc.gov2023-02-03
3. Ireland's Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that Subway's bread contains so much sugar — 10% of flour weight, five times the legal limit — that it cannot legally be classified as bread and is instead closer to confectionery. That same year it became widely reported that Subway had only removed azodicarbonamide — a chemical used in yoga mat foam and dough conditioning — from its U.S. bread in 2014, after a public petition.npr.org2020-10-01