Meineke techs are paid on the flag, and the network warranty follows the car, so a redo can land in your bay from a job another Meineke sold. WageTime is payroll built to pay the redo right, across every brand you run.
For independently owned and operated Meineke® franchise businesses. WageTime is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Meineke, Driven Brands, Take 5 Oil Change, or Maaco; those marks belong to their owners and are used here only to describe the businesses this page serves.
A Meineke store runs flat-rate flag hours across exhaust, brakes, and suspension, under a warranty honored at any location in the network. Many owners also run a Take 5 or a Maaco next door, each on its own pay model. Right now the warranty redo, the second and third brand, and the fleet-account labor all live on sticky notes and a spreadsheet nobody reconciles until a check comes up short.
Meineke honors its warranty at every authorized location, so a customer can bring a warranty job to your bay that another Meineke sold. Your tech still does the labor, and whether it pays reduced flag, policy time, or full flag because a bad part caused it is a decision that lives on a sticky note, not in payroll. The ticket also has to land against the right store so the labor is not lost in one pile.
Meineke sits inside Driven Brands, so many owners also run a Take 5 lube shop or a Maaco body shop. That is flat-rate repair techs, an hourly lube crew, and collision and paint labor, three pay models under separate EINs, all due on the same Friday. Generic payroll wants one company and one pay model. You have several of each.
Flag pay is the trade’s norm, but the overtime exemption written for franchised new-car dealers does not reach an independent Meineke. Any week a tech mixes flag jobs with hourly bench time, the premium is figured on the blended rate, and a thin week still has to clear minimum wage on the hours actually clocked. Today that reconciliation is a spreadsheet no owner wants an auditor reading.
A national fleet or commercial account is billed to the account, not the driver, but the tech who turns the wrench is still paid on flag for it. Shops often job-cost that labor by hand, if at all, so fleet work and retail work blur into one labor number and nobody can see which side pays.
The apprentice’s fresh ASE result, an EPA 609 card, a state inspection license, the tool-account balance a tech is paying down, and last week’s hours still parked in the shop system: with no HR desk on site, all of it lands on the owner once the bays go quiet. Run a Take 5 or a Maaco too and that paperwork multiplies by brand.
One payroll can, yes: WageTime runs flat-rate Meineke techs, an hourly Take 5 crew, and Maaco collision and paint labor each on their own pay model, one login across separate EINs.
| Entity | People | Labor MTD |
|---|---|---|
| Meineke repair · Center 214Flat-rate flag · EIN **-4471 | 9 | $34,860.00 |
| Take 5 · Store 88Hourly lube crew · EIN **-9052 | 7 | $19,240.00 |
| Maaco · Shop 31Coll/paint flag · EIN **-6613 | 8 | $30,510.00 |
Replaces the second and third payroll system a multi-brand owner stands up, and the one pooled labor figure that hid which brand was losing.
A cross-shop warranty repair earns its own WageTime pay line, paid as you set it and landed against the store that sold the original job: reduced flag or policy time for a comeback your shop owns, full flag when a bad part caused it.
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Flag hours (customer-pay ROs) | 37.0 hrs at $31.00 | $1,147.00 |
| Warranty redo, bad part (full flag) | 1.5 hrs at $31.00 | $46.50 |
| Warranty redo, other-store sale (policy time) | 1.2 hrs at $16.00 | $19.20 |
| Regular rate for overtime (all pay ÷ 44 clock hrs) | $27.56 / hr | included |
| Overtime premium (4 OT hrs at half the regular rate) | 4.0 hrs | $55.12 |
Replaces the warranty redo scribbled on a sticky note, and the hour a flat-rate tech quietly worked for free.
Usually yes: the dealer exemption does not reach an independent shop, a call for you and your counsel. Flag pay drives the paycheck while the law keys overtime and the wage floor to clock hours, so WageTime tracks both together.
| Line | Quantity | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flag hours (exhaust, mufflers, brakes) | 40.6 hrs | $30.00 | $1,218.00 |
| Shop time (hourly: cleanup, training) | 5.0 hrs | $18.00 | $90.00 |
| Weighted-average regular rate (all earnings ÷ 45.6 clock hrs) | 45.6 hrs | $28.68 | $1,308.00 |
| Overtime premium (5.6 OT hrs at half rate) | 5.6 hrs | $14.34 | $80.30 |
Replaces the flag-times-rate spreadsheet, and the straight-time premium that quietly shorts a mixed week.
The tech is paid on flag for fleet work the same as retail, on WageTime’s normal weighted-average overtime engine, while the labor job-costs to the account it belongs to, so you can see which side of the shop pays.
| Account | Tech | Flag hrs | Labor cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| National fleet account billed to account | Reggie A. | 12.4 | $384.40 |
| National fleet account billed to account | Marco T. | 9.8 | $303.80 |
| Retail repair orders | Dana P. | 40.6 | $1,218.00 |
| Inspection-upsell spiffs (off-cycle) | 3 techs | per item | $214.00 |
Replaces the fleet labor mixed into one retail number, and the side check for spiffs that skipped the overtime math.
WageTime does, on one employee record per tech across every brand you run: certs and tool accounts beside the imported hours, whether the tech works the Meineke bays, the Take 5 lane, or the Maaco booth.
| Tech | Clock hrs | Flag hrs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dana P. | 45.6 | 40.6 | Ready |
| Reggie A. | 44.0 | 38.5 | Ready |
| Marco T. | 40.0 | 36.2 | ASE A5 30-day |
| Ivy L. | 27.0 | 24.3 | New hire, I-9 |
Replaces the cert board taped to the break-room wall, and the export, reformat, retype at every period close.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoThe redo posts as its own pay line. A comeback your shop owns can run on reduced flag or policy time; a redo caused by a bad part can run at full flag. Either way the labor lifts the blended overtime rate, the week is tested against the wage floor on clock hours, and job costing pins it to the store that sold the original job.
Usually, at an independent shop. The exemption that covers franchised new-car dealers does not extend to a Meineke, and the retail-commission exemption carries strict tests a flat-rate plan may not meet, a call for you and your counsel. When overtime is owed, WageTime figures it on the blended regular rate any time a tech earns at two or more rates in the week, on its own.
Yes. Run each brand as its own company and EIN or as departments under one, with one login across the group and labor reported per brand or combined. Flat-rate Meineke techs, an hourly Take 5 crew, and Maaco collision and paint labor each keep their own pay model, and WageTime files every entity’s taxes separately while role-based access scopes each manager to their store.
The tech is paid on flag for fleet and national-account jobs the same as retail work, on the normal weighted-average overtime engine. WageTime job-costs that labor to the fleet account with cost codes up to 40 characters, so fleet and retail labor read on separate lines and you can see which side of the shop pays, without the billing arrangement changing how the tech is paid.
A spiff a tech earns on recommended brake or exhaust work is nondiscretionary, so it belongs in the regular rate the overtime premium is figured on. WageTime runs it as a per-item pay code, in-cycle or off-cycle at no extra cost, and folds it into the weighted-average overtime rate instead of paying the over-40 hours on base flag alone.
$50 a month for the company plus $10 per person actually paid that month: $130 for an eight-person shop, with unlimited runs, so weekly pay and a midweek spiff run cost nothing extra. Filings, W-2s, and 1099s are included. Run a Take 5 or a Maaco too? Each company keeps its own EIN, with one login and combined reporting.
Last week’s flag hours by tech, a warranty redo or two beside them, and your fleet-account labor. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo shop: you’ll watch a warranty pay code and a mixed flag week compute one weighted-average overtime, see the minimum-wage check run, and get a straight answer on running a Meineke, a Take 5, and a Maaco from one login.
Book a 20-minute demo