Do we like them?

Do we like Wingstop?

Chicken wing restaurant chain, run mostly through franchisees, based in Addison, Texas (Dallas area).

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. The chain is growing fast, but the wage-theft cases we found involved franchisees. We found little on its own record on the environment or giving.

Wingstop is a wing chain with its HQ in Texas. Almost all of its restaurants are run by franchisees. It's listed on the stock exchange, and Michael Skipworth is the CEO. It's growing quickly: 493 net new openings in 2025, and it wants over 10,000 restaurants worldwide.

In 2026 it brought back a chief operating officer role and gave it to Raj Kapoor. It also launched the Club Wingstop loyalty program in June 2026, and it's rolling out an AI-enabled 'Smart Kitchen'.

The drama is mostly about pay. KGET reported a $1.7 million wage-theft settlement with the California Labor Commissioner, covering about 550 workers at five Bakersfield franchise locations. Seattle's labor office settled with former owners of a location, and a Bronx franchise settled a class action for up to $90,000 and denied wrongdoing.

We'd call it a mixed bag. It's a successful growth business, but franchising pushes the risk of paying staff properly onto the franchisees. We found nothing showing great deeds beyond creating jobs, so we score it 5.