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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    1

    Default Labor Laws Protecting Commission Paid Salesmen

    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Louisiana

    Are there any labor laws that protect salesmen that are paid strictly by commission? In this specific case, a commission base was agreed on by employee and employer to be paid a certain amount on production/sales of his customers. Since that agreement, a large customer whose business pays almost half of his commissions, was taken away and given to another salesman without warning or consent. This is not the first time it has happened. Are there any laws that protect a salesman with regards to his customers being transferred to someone else?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: Labor Laws Protecting Commission Paid Salesmen

    Minimum wage and overtime law for minimum wage apply. Otherwise refer to your contract.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Labor Laws Protecting Commission Paid Salesmen

    Are you inside sales or outside?

    There are no employment laws that protect your customer base. But whether m/w and o/t laws apply depend on whether you are exempt or non-exempt, and whether you can be considered exempt depends on whether you do inside or outside sales.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Labor Laws Protecting Commission Paid Salesmen

    Quote Quoting cbg
    View Post
    Are you inside sales or outside?

    There are no employment laws that protect your customer base. But whether m/w and o/t laws apply depend on whether you are exempt or non-exempt, and whether you can be considered exempt depends on whether you do inside or outside sales.
    I will also add that it depends on the nature of your industry and whether or not you are legitimately a contractor vs an actual employee.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    284

    Default Re: Labor Laws Protecting Commission Paid Salesmen

    Agreed with the other answers. The big question is whether or not the FLSA Outside Sales exception is in play. If so, the employee is Exempt from both MW and OT requirements. Short version is that the employee is required to spend 51%+ of their time visiting customers at the customer's facilities. DOL keep the rules for Outside Sales on a very tight leash, since this is the only actual Commission Only (ignoring MT/OT requirements) supporting by FLSA. Inside Sales (everything that is not Outside Sales) is always subject to MW, and subject to either OT or the more restrictive 7(i) exception (Retail/Service Establishment) which basically replaces the normal OT rules with a more restrictive set of commission rules. There are also a bunch of industry specific exceptions such as Auto Dealer effecting sales people and OT requirement.

    Now unrelated to the statutory FLSA federal labor law (just discussed), statutory Contract law is a possibility as is Common Law. If the employee has a contract, take it to a local attorney who will have to actually read it. That is the standard answer to all contract law questions. Contract law answers are always specific to the exact wording of the ENTIRE contract as well as the specific state law in question. Meaning that the exact same contract can be treated differently in different states. And you cannot get a good answer by taking one paragraph out of context with the entire contract.

    Common Law is what you have when there is no statutory law, and is a more general type of law not specific to labor law. Basically local customs and court cases going back a 1,000 years to British Common Law. The old "I will paint your barn if you give me three meals and a pig" type of law. Common Law still exists unless explictly superceeded by statutory law, and tends to be location specific. Small Claims court is the most common example of Common Law.

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