07/10/2002

18. Do you pay on a "salary plus commission" basis?

Commissions received by covered employees must be included in their weekly wages which will result in a change in their rates per hour. Amounts received as commission must be included with other straight-time earnings in arriving at the employee's regular rates of pay which are used for the purpose of computing overtime compensation due when more than 40 hours are worked in a workweek. This is done by adding the commission earnings to the weekly straight-time earnings and dividing the total by the actual hours worked during the week to arrive at the average hourly rate.

Again, extra pay for hours worked beyond 40 must be paid.

WARNING: The same ruling also applies to machinists on a "salary plus percentage of labor" basis.