Commissions – Is Your Employer Reducing Yours?

Here are 3 ways you might be losing wages you’re due.

A commission employment agreement may require an employee’s commission to be reduced by costs that are directly related to the sale, for shipping the item, perhaps, the cost of the product being sold, or the cost of free products offered by the salesperson to induce the sale. BUT … An employer cannot make deductions for things not even remotely related to the sale. So, for example, an employer may not deduct the cost of the business’s electricity or the business’s general overhead from the employee’s commission.

Here’s another trick. You’ve made the sale. However, the client hasn’t yet paid for the sale, and suddenly your “position has been eliminated”. And, “By the way, as a result of your no longer being employee here, you don’t get that commission.” If you had done everything needed to accomplish that sale, and the customer made the purchase, you should think about seeking legal counsel.

A third means of denying you a commission? Has this happened to you? You make the sale. The customer buys it and pays for it. But then your employer says, because other sales fell through that were made before you went to work for the company and which are in your sales division, you don’t get paid for that commission.

Any of that sound all too familiar? Maybe you should call a lawyer to see if you can collect on these commissions after all. We’d be glad to talk with you. Write me at Tom@Falveylaw.com or call us at 626-795-0205. You can also learn more about various legal issues and cases we’ve filed by going to Falveylaw.com.

Thanks very much.