Long story short. Mortgage lender now requiring we take minimum wage bi-weekly, which will come out of our commission checks when we receive them. In other words, we are commission-only employees. Can they require that we be in the office during certain hours? What about work we do after hours at home, such as calling customers? Esentially, they are not paying us, as it all comes out of our coimmission, when we make it.

Based on what you have said, this is not only legal, but federal DOL has been successfully suing mortgage companies who fail to do this. You mentioned minimum wage. Overtime is also a requirement.

And yes the employer can tell you where to work and when you work.

You say that you are a "commission only" employee. The federal government would not agree with you. Technically you are a Non-Exempt employee who must be paid at least minimum wage and must be paid overtime. The only employees who can legally be paid on a "commission only" basis irrespective of hours worked are those who qualify as Outside Sales. All mortgage companies who have tried to claim that that their sales people fall under that exception have pretty much been mulched in court.

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/esa/esa20071474.htm

Since they are taking this out of our commission, what if we don't make any commission? And how long can they take it out? In other words, if they pay minimum wage for 3 mos. and I make no commission and then the 4th month I do, can they then take all my commission to compensate for the 3 mos. I didn't make any money? Or is it a month to month thing?

No,they cannot. Minimum wage is the floor. Minimum wage for prior workweeks cannot be offset against current commissions

Thank you so very much. There is a whole office full of people who are wondering what is going on and why this is happening and what they can and cannot do.

I have been working in this business for the past year and there were plenty months I made nothing. Can I go back and ask for that money? The minimumj wage I mean?

You have to be paid minimum wage calculated on a work week basis in a timely manner. Should overtime occur during the weekweek, then you have to be paid that also. If your "contract" or "agreement" or "policy" or whatever you and the employer choose to call it for commissions exceed this number, then additional funds can be due. But like Patty said, based on what you have said, MW/OT is your floor and it is not legally possible for your employer to pay less then MW/OT. You might want to print out the news release I mentioned. Or if you do a key word search, you will find a lot of similar coverage of court actions or settlements regarding mortgage related employers who failed to pay MW/OT. This is very well settled law at the moment. Some years ago the mortgage industry collectively decided that their employees where Outside Sales, but the industry as far as I know has lost 100% of their court cases in this regard.

Just to be clear, paying commissions per se is not illegal. But paying commissions only unrelated to actual hours worked is legally restricted to Outside Sales employee and federal DOL (and the courts) have made it very clear that particular dog will not hunt in the mortgage broker industry.

I just want you all to know how much we really appreciate all of your help. Ours is a long story and we were basically sold out by our current owner/manager and can expect no straight answers from him. So you all have been our lifeline.

I want to reiterate because my fellow employees are dependent on what I am telling them, based on what you all are saying.

If we are now being paid minimum wage by company A, which took over effective Sept. 1st., but are still working loans that originated when company B was in effect and we will be paid by company B for the same loans, can company B take our commission to offset wages paid by company A?

And again, what is considered a payroll period. This is probably the most important question I am asking. If we get paid minimum wage every 2 weeks, and that is our payroll period, then how far into the future can they take our commissions, to offset the paid minimum wage?

Thanks again. There is a whole office full of people who are being screwed, depending on your information.

OT and MW are calculated on a workweek basis, not on a pay period basis. This is hard federal law (FLSA). Pay periods determine when the employee is paid (state law), but have no effect what-so-ever on the MW/OT calculation.

Assuming that your employer(s) are in compliance with the federal MW/OT laws, then federal law has no real interest in what you get paid past that. State law might be interested, but your state is not my state, and I have no knowledge (or interest) in LA commission rules.

I am going to suggest that you need to talk to a local attorney. Commissons tend to be very state law specific and very specific to the exact wording of any contracts or policies.