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. In 2015, Subway publicly committed to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by the end of 2025. As the deadline arrived, the company went silent. The Humane League launched a national campaign in May 2025 — including billboards around Subway's Miami headquarters — calling out the broken pledge. Subway also promised in 2012 to 'rapidly eliminate' gestation crates from its pork supply chain and, according to the Humane Society, has made zero documented progress.prnewswire.com2025-05-06
4. 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