My husband started work for a custom kitchen design firm last year. An hourly rate of pay was to be 16.00 p/hour. Last Dec 28th they came to him and told him that as of Jan 2nd he would be making 10.00 p/hour and 3% commission from sales. This Sept. 12th they came to him and told him they were no longer going to pay him an hourly wage but raise the commission to 6%.He went and applied for partial unemployment benefits. He was approved However because the company list the commission as a sales bonus they say they are not going to pay and have filled out no paperwork so he can start getting paid. He maintains his 40 hour work week and over the past 3 weeks has made a whopping 53.00...I read something that said that the employer had to pay minimum wage if you were not making it on commissions.
This employer has also "charged" my husband with andimistrative fees bacause a client decided to move up her install date. He had no idea until he got a 0.00 commission check that week. It was close to 500.00 that they took.
This company is run by a family who I feel has no idea how to treat employees.
Could someone please help me with answers so we can help our family get back on track...
The health insurance was cut off as well.

What are the employee's actual job duties? And where are these duties performed?

his job duties are:
design custom kitchens/baths for clients who come into the showroom, project management, problem resolution,sales of products.
he works strictly out of the showroom. a client may ask him to come on site if there is a problem or to get a feel for the space before the design takes place. he is not an independant contractor nor does he have a business license.
he does not get paid milage and is not a cold call sales rep. the clients come to the showroom by word of mouth or they are looking for this service.

It is hard to come up with a "one size fits all" answer, but basically the only employees who can legally be paid on a "commission only" basis are those under the FLSA Outside Sales (http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17f_outsidesales.htm) exception. Based on what you have said this exception is not applicable.

That normally means that minimum wage and overtime must be paid. Now the federal FLSA law is pretty much "exceptions are us", and there are a lot of exceptions. One possible exception would be the Retail and Service Establishment (http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs20.pdf) exception. The problem is that even if the employee in question is eligible for this exception, based on what has been said the employer does not seem to be following the rules.

This is not the only option, but I would advise to first get a real job from a better employer, then file a wage claim on the way out the door. Keep track of actual hours worked whatever else is done.

Thanks so much for your response. This is what I have been telling my husband with all the research I have done. I have read all the re: you gave and none of it applies. He does still work strictly in the showroom and has been told by his employer not to go to clients houses.
He also just handed my a letter that he got from the company on Sep 19th that states that as of Sep 15th he would be paid on an comission only basis. I just checked the bank account and there was only a commission check deposited on the 26th. which would be the following friday. should he have been paid for the hours worked the previous week since he was not given notice until he had alreay worked the hours?

should he have been paid for the hours worked the previous week since he was not given notice until he had alreay worked the hours?

"Notice" requirements are state specific and VA is not my state. Past that point, if MW/OT is applicable, and it probably is, then notice per se cannot make these requirements go away. Just to be clear however, while the employer probably must pay MW/OT any commission payments would count towards this requirement.