Commissioned Sales Rep and Minimum Wage

[Breezily]

I am in a mess with a company I just left. When I first came aboard they asked me if I wanted to attend a training class in D.C., I said yes. They booked my flight, hotel, and then came to me and asked me to sign a contract saying I would pay back training costs. I was stuck!

The job was horrible, many lies from the start and the owner would dip into your territory and steal business out of it. Anyways, my first six months of employment I was paid a base. After six months, the job was commission only.

For the month of October and the first week of November I made $0, and had to quit. Now the owner of this company is threatening me with legal actions. I told him we should be even due to not being paid for five weeks of full time work, at nothing. Today I received a letter from his lawyer that states, "as an outside sales person, you have no claim for an hourly minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. You were informed when you were employed, and as stated in your employment agreement, that you would be paid on a commission only basis after your first six months of employment."

I live in Nebraska. From what I read on Minimum Wage Laws, it sounded like even if I was comission only, they had to pay me at least minimum wage?

My contract with them says that I will obtain valuable training, and that the company is paying the employee to develop business.

Thanks to anyone who could give me good advise!

[cbg]

Duplicate post.

In future, please choose one forum for your question and do not post multiple times. The same people respond to all the employment law forums, so you will not get more or different answers by posting more than once, and it confuses things if some of the information ends up in one thread and some in another.

[46geronimo46]

Hi,

I sell timeshare for a Company in Virginia. We have to "sign in" and attend meetings in the morning and wait for prospects to come in ( unless self generated then we know when they're coming in).

We are not allowed to leave until the line is "cut" (the sign we are done for the day).

We may work 5 hours a day or 10 hours a day but, usually no more than 40 hours a week.

Frontline Sales reps are paid 4% commision on a sale and "Steady Pay" which amounts to @ $229.00 a week.

This "Steady Pay" is the Company's way of ensuring we don't go a week without getting paid. If we do write a deal, it could take up to 3 weeks before we get paid on it.

There may be times we we don't get a "deal (sale) and we're paid the $229.00 a week. Sometimes you can go without a deal for a month.

When we do get paid on a deal the Company "takes back" $200 - $400 dollars
out of our paycheck for the "STEADY PAY".

My question is, can they (the Company) do this? Is this legal? Some of us wonder because if we have to be there a certain time every morning and, if we are late, we're put on "overage" ( you sit there all day and you wont get a tour) and can't leave until the "line is cut".

Shouldn't we get paid for those hours anyway? Can they take this money back from us for hours we've put in?

If anyone has an answer or can provide a link to some insights it'll be appreciated. Thanks !

[TM1]

If you start your question as a new post it will have a better chance of being responded to.

[46geronimo46]

Thx Tm1. New To This. Appriciate It