When I was hired at my job I was told that I would be making a certain hourly wage plus commission-a very little commision-when I agreed to the terms I re-asked that it was an hourly rate which means that if I work over 40 hours then it would be at time and a half, and was told yes by my supervisor. The first week I worked well over 40 but was only paid for 40 because they automatically take an hour for your lunch, whether you take one or not, I got that back because I was in training and needed to get it done in order to work on the computer system, the following week, I worked 4 hours over and was paid straight time, our comptroller is only part time so to get an answer fast is unheard of, the second week, I was just under 5 hours overtime and the same thing. This week, I have about 2 hours and when She finally felt like giving me the answer, she stated that it was because I receive a monthly commission. I guess my question is, when you are a salaried emplyee you don't get overtime and when you need to take an extended lunch, or leave 15 minutes early it doesn't get "docked"...one hour over will wash the one hour taken, or so I thought.
Can you explain salary versus hourly for me in this ridiculous state I live in???:

Well, first of all, as a nonexempt employee, you must be paid for all hours worked; if you worked through lunch, you must be paid for it, however you can be disciplined for doing so if the company policy is that you take a lunch.
But the employer did pay for that time in the next paycheck, am I understanding that correctly?


I'm having a real hard time understanding most of your post, however, so let's go with some general information. Federal law is going to apply here as your state generally does not have more restrictive regulations than federal.

If you are paid on an hourly basis, you are almost certainly nonexempt. "Salaried" and "hourly" are merely pay methods. Although nonexempt employees CAN be paid on a salaried basis, overtime is still due however with limited exceptions, one of which MAY apply here.

If the training was mandatory, it's hours worked.

What type of business is this, what do you sell and where do you sell it?

Is your commission, for a representative time period (like a month) at least half your total pay? Or have you not been there long enough to build this type of history?