Domino's CEO Says Restaurant Employers Must Increase Wages To Compete

Last week, McDonald's announced that they would be increasing salaries of all corporate-owned restaurant employees (which, unfortunately, only accounts for approximately 10 percent of McDonald's locations). It now looks like McDonald's bold move may be the start of a domino effect — literally. Yesterday, in an interview with CNBC, Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle said that the competition for labor is driving restaurants to increase the wages of their employees including perhaps, Dominos, just to stay in the game.

"The great news is the economy is moving, it is getting better, it's getting harder to hire people, it's why I think you've seen a lot of these announcements around pay," he told CNBC in an on-camera interview. "I think the reality is the labor market is tightening up, you know, and we've got to respond to that. It's getting harder to hire people, that drives wages up and that's a great thing."

Doyle said that most of his locations are franchise-owned, but as for the 400 stores owned by the parent company, he stated, "we need to pay more to hire people right now." Domino's later backpedaled, telling The Daily Meal that the "we" actually referred to the restaurant industry in general, and was not meant to imply a specific plan for wage increases at Domino's restaurants.

"The jobs we're talking about are mostly delivery positions. With tips, our drivers already make, on average, well over the minimum wage and over the amounts that you've recently heard from other retail and restaurant companies," Tim McIntyre, vice president of communications at Domino's, told The Daily Meal. "As you know, we're largely a franchised organization, so wage rates are going to vary locally by owner, but we're confident that we are highly competitive in the market."

According to Glassdoor, Domino's delivery drivers receive $7.76 hourly on average, which is above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. However, Domino's does not quite have a clean track record when it comes to paying their employees fairly. Early last year, the pizza company settled a wage theft lawsuit for $1.28 million in court.