California Labor Law: Employee Gets $58 Paycheck

Victorville, CAThere are a lot of people whose jobs and income have been affected by the recent change in the economy. One group that is often overlooked is people who make commission in their job. David A. says his employer is violating California labor law by not paying hourly wages when those amount to more than commissions. Of course, with the downturn in the economy, people who rely on commissions are likely feeling the pinch.

"I'm a sales person in the auto industry," David says. "I sell cars. Due to the economic crunch, my hourly came out to be more than my commissions, but my employer is not willing to pay me for my hours."

David says that since starting work at the automobile dealership in May, he has made commissions every month and has not had to rely on an hourly wage to see him through. In addition to his commission, which is paid by the dealership, employees for this particular car company receive a $100 bonus on a Visa card every time they get a perfect score on their performance rating.

Basically, what happens is that when the sales people sell a car, the purchasers receive a phone call from the company asking them to rate the sales people's performance. If the sales person get perfect 10s in every category, he or she gets a $100 bonus. However, if their average score on the ranking drops to less than 89 percent, regardless of how many perfect scores they had in a month, they lose their bonus.

"Last month, I sold 7 cars, but I should have had $1,800 in hourly pay," David says. "What the dealership did was they realized that I had $700 in bonus money coming from the manufacturer. They said to me, 'You have $700 coming and we'll take that as your pay.' They gave me a $58.00 paycheck.

"The dealership and the manufacturer are 2 separate entities. The dealership doesn't want to pay me my hourly pay. They think a $58 paycheck is okay. I told them I can't afford to stay there without minimum wage. I understand that I got in this business to make commissions, which I was very successful at, but the way the market is, I work more than I make through commission, so they should pay minimum wage.

"They said they would loan me $500—it's called a draw—to keep my family fed, but I would have to pay it back sometime this month.

"Months ago, when I started this job, employees had to sign a stack of papers. I guess one of the papers we signed said we would take the bonus as our wage, that they could use the manufacturer's bonus as pay. But we signed those under duress—there was no job if we didn't sign the paper."

David says other employees have also been affected by their employer's decision to use bonus money as a wage. However, they have not taken action to fix the problem. So far, David's employer has refused to budge on the issue.

"I would tell people to know their rights as an employee working in California. Don't sign a paper under duress because right now I don't have any income. Fifty-eight dollars for the month is what I get. I don't know what I should do."