Pizza Delivery Reimbursement Poses ‘Dilemma’ for Appeals Court

The car-associated costs of drivers who deliver pizza using personal vehicles are “undisputedly hard to calculate,” but that doesn’t mean employers or workers can simply guess at the proper reimbursement rate, the Sixth Circuit said Tuesday.

Battle Creek Pizza Inc. and Domino’s franchisee Team Pizza Inc. argued that wage-and-hour laws allowed them to use a reasonable approximation of their workers’ costs when determining the appropriate reimbursement. The businesses are defending separately-filed Fair Labor Standards Act collective suits alleging they failed to adequately reimburse their drivers, pushing the workers’ hourly pay below minimum wage.

Delivery drivers who work for the companies ...