Hello, I am a commission only repair technician, with no contract, and work for a small privately owned franchise which employees 8 and grosses approx. 1.2 million annually. I would like to describe some points of my job that seem shady and would appreciate any comments about any that you feel are illegal. I work 60+ hours a week for 6 days a week. Not all that time is working, a lot of it is driving to jobs or sitting and waiting for jobs. We only get paid on "sales" and are unpaid for "warranty" calls. Sometimes warranties are the fault of the technician and sometimes the parts are bad or broken, either way we fix it for free. We are not reimbursed for coupons that are put out by the company. We are required to attend meetings which are unpaid. We are required to be "on call" for two nights a week which can turn out to be a 16 hour day, no extra commission or pay for late hours or hours worked over 40...also no extra for holidays. I have worked 10+ hours for each of the past five govt. recognized holidays for the same commission as any other day. If we order the wrong part accidentally than we have to pay for it out of our pocket. If we are at fault for an accident with the company vehicle than we are responsible for the $500 deductible. There is much more, but this is definitely a good chunk of it. I am not looking to take my boss to court, I would just like some talking points to try to reason with the man. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Probably not legal. The only class of employee is that can legally be paid on commission only irrespective of hours worked is Outside Sales. You might need to give DOL a call to be sure, but I have never heard of the type of work you describe falling under the Outside Sales exception.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17f_outsidesales.htm

Assuming that you are Non-Exempt, then three things are probably true.
- Your employer must keep track of all hours worked including waiting time and meetings.
- For each workweek, you must be paid on average at least minimum wage.
- For each workweek, you must be paid overtime for all hours worked past 40 in the workweek.

Now as long as commissions paid for each workweek exceeds these requirements, the law (FLSA) is being followed.

Deductions for parts and deductible is more complicated. Under federal law, this is not necessarily illegal although it is subject to certain restrictions. Your state is not my state and I have no idea what rules (if any) OH has in this area.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs16.pdf

Thanks for the links, we are 50% sales and 50% technician providing the service we just sold. Garage Door repair to be specific. The more threads I read, it seems like an employer can do what ever they want as long as you go home with minimum wage at the end of the day. I make a decent living, but I count on that money to raise my kids and keep a roof over my family...I don't understand why the govt. doesn't protect employees from having to share in the cost of running a business. If I help pay for the business, then I should be part owner. Thanks so much for your time.