I've just reached out to the Department of Labor and Industry on this, and I've read through the Wage Payment and Collection Law, but I could definitely use some guidance on this one.

My employer pays commissions 60 days behind. For example, all commission earned between 5/1 and 5/31 will be paid on July's final paycheck (commission is always paid on the last paycheck of the month, and paychecks are issued every other Friday). However, my current employer will not pay commission to former employees. If an employee were to quit half way through July, they would not receive any commission that was earned in July, June, or May.

Looking at the Wage Payment and Collection Law, section 5 paragraph "a" of the act states that "...whenever an employee quits or resigns his employment, the wages or compensation earned shall become due and payable not later than the next regular payday of his employer on which such wages would otherwise be due and payable." "Wage" is defined in section 2.1 as "...all earnings of an employee, regardless of whether determined on time, task, piece, commission, or other method of calculation."

From my interpretation of those two statements, it appears that:

1) Commission must be paid for the period up to seperation
2) Commission must be paid in a timely manner (in my case, 60 days, though the "next regular paycheck" would be nice)

I have been informed by two of my immediate supervisors that all employees have agreed to this policy by completing their "new hire" paperwork. However, I am unable to find any references to this in any of the employee paperwork for my location. Furthermore, I doubt that such an agreement would be enforceable, since section 7 of the act states that "No provision of this act shall in any way be contravened or set aside by a private agreement."

I'm going to be leaving my company in mid-August, and would appreciate any help, guidance, or insight anyone can offer.

Thanks

The commissions would not have to be paid at the time of termination or even the next check as they are not yet "due and payable" until 60 days later.

That's what I thought, and that's certainly what common sense dictates (although, unfortunately, common sense is not always compatible with labor laws). Their verbally-stated (and demonstrated) policy is to simply not pay commissions at all after separation.

Thanks for your comment - it's reassuring to hear someone else share my views. Looks like I'll be letting the Department of Labor & Industry handle this one.