Earned Commissions and Bonuses
It is illegal in California for an employer to fail to
pay its employee bonuses and commissions earned even if the employee has left
the company after earning the commission of bonus. However, this may not be
true if the employee is paid the commission in part for a continuing service
obligation.
Reasonable conditions may be placed upon the right to
recover commissions. For instance, it is sometimes permissible to require that
the contract upon which the commissions are based is not complete until payment
of the contract price to the employer.
Commissions earned on a sale must be paid within the
employee's pay period. Withholding payment of earned commissions until the end
of a longer period would be a violation of California's Labor Code.
Additionally, any earned commissions may not be forfeited. Once a commission is
vested, the commissions may not be forfeited as a result of the fact that the
employee terminates the employment.
No commissions will be found to be owed an employee
where a contract provides that the employee is to receive no commission on
accounts where payment is not received until a set number of days (as an
example, 30 days) after separation of employment. On the other hand,
commissions may be found to have been earned and payable to the employee after
separation of employment where the contract terms are overly harsh and the
employee lacked meaningful choice in the contract negotiations.
For a free consultation with an experienced employee
rights attorney, contact David Spivak:
- Email David@SpivakLaw.com
- Call toll free (877) 277-2950
- Visit The Spivak Law Firm, 16530 Ventura Boulevard Suite 312 Encino, CA 91436
- Fax (310) 499-4739
For further information on your rights in the work
place, please visit our other websites:
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