At my part-time job I do cellular sales. This last 2 week pay period we were dead when I was around and therefore I had no commission at all. First time that has happened since the new minimum wage law went into effect. My hourly rate is $7/hour + commission. So if I made no commission in a pay period, do they have to pay me the difference to bring me to the minimum wage level? Its not really about the money, hell I'm thinking about leaving at the end of the year anyways, but they have been doing this to all the part-time staff at the store and their complaints to the manager have fallen on deaf ears. I opened the store and used to run it before I took my job with the state, so I'm in the unique position of both having the respect of the owner and not really needing the job and can easily tell them to fuck off. So legally are they in the wrong on this, or is it something that does violate labor laws?

11/16/2009 9:14:51 AM

Quote :

"The minimum wage in North Carolina is currently $7.25 an hour. Employers doing business in North Carolina are required to pay at least $7.25 per hour to all employees (agricultural and domestic employees are subject to the federal minimum wage). The $7.25 per hour state minimum wage also applies to the state of North Carolina, to county and local governments and to instrumentalities of government."

Yes. You cannot pay people less than 7.25 an hour. Even if it's evened out by "tips" or "commissions" you must be making at least 7.25 an hour. Which I had no idea the minimum wage jumped so high so fast! I wasn't making 7.25 at Subway until I had been promoted twice!

11/16/2009 9:47:41 AM

^Thats what I think, but they said it comes out overall. What kind of pay period must we look at to determine this? Is it on the 2-week pay periods that I get now, or over the course of a month, or our overall W-2 salary? Because that will be well over an average min. wage workers pay when you figure in my commission.

11/16/2009 9:50:39 AM

Does commissioned income count as tips? If so, then it says on the Dept. of Labor site:

Quote :

"Employers must pay more than the hourly cash wage if the tipped employee earns less than the credit in tips per hour, as it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that all tipped employees earn at least the minimum wage in cash wages and tips."

So it would sound like they owe me the difference.

Also the other guy is a full-time student, so he can actually be paid at 90% of minimum wage as long as he remains in school. So I guess technically they aren't breaking the law with regards to him.

Finally, the website states that Dept. of Labor doesn't handle paycheck disputes under $50 and the only place I could go is small claims court. I don't want to take them to court over $5, I just want them to pay all of their employees fairly.

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 10:03 AM. Reason : ]

11/16/2009 10:01:00 AM

For the sake of this argument, I would assume that commissions = tips. No matter how your pay structure breaks down, whether it be base + tips, commissions, bonuses, etc, it must at least even out to $7.25 per hour by law.

This is the first I have ever heard of a "lower than minimum wage" base salary in any job other than food service. The company you work for should raise your base by $.25 per hour, especially considering the economy and the fact that people aren't buying things like new electronics unless they absolutely have to.

Although, now that I think about it, how does this apply to commission only jobs?

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 12:06 PM. Reason : a]

11/16/2009 12:04:11 PM

They are cheap motherfuckers, bottom line. They have a multimillion dollar house on Roanoke Island as well as an airplane, a lake house, etc. and I'm sure my job with the state doing IT work probably makes more than 95% of their employees.

11/16/2009 1:17:09 PM

4 years ago I was doing landscaping in NC for 5.15/hr. What the hell happened?

11/16/2009 1:40:56 PM

^immigration reform?

11/16/2009 3:24:58 PM