My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Michigan. Sorry if my post is a bit long.
PART 1: I am a delivery driver ("at will" employee) for a courier company. I am strictly commission based, earning 43% of the revenues from every job I complete. I am required to track my business miles and turn in a report at the end of each week. I use my own vehicle on the job. I also have to report my hours worked on that same form.
When I receive my pay checks, the gross amount is the total of my commissions earned. However, the company converts that amount to wages and mileage reimbursement. For example, I recently earned $677.38 in one week. I reported 40 hours worked and 1381 business miles. This is how my pay breaks down on my pay stub:
$296.00 Commission
$381.38 Reimbursement
$70.46 Total Deductions
$606.92 Net Pay
A few side notes to add: 1) I receive weekly commission reports listing the jobs I did, what the customers were charged, and the pay I earned per job. 2) The adult minimum wage in Michigan is $7.40/hour. 3) Regardless of how many hours I report, the "commission" on my check is $296.00 (40hrs @ $7.40/hr). 4) I do realize mileage reimbursement is not required by law in Michigan.
The company states they do it this way as "a favor" to me and its to my advantage. It certainly doesn't look like they're doing me any favors. 1381 business miles @ the standard mileage rate works out to $759.55. In the example above, I have $378.17 worth of mileage that I can write off, but only $28.15 of Federal taxes paid into the system because only $296.00 was reported to the IRS as taxable income.
Is this on the up and up? Can an employee's gross pay be determined by commissions earned and then paid to her as wages/expense reimbursement?
PART 2: In addition to being my boss at the company above (Company A), my boss owns his own courier company (Company B). The companies are separate business entities, each having its own federal and state ID numbers, customer database, employees, etc. Though they use the same PEO for payroll, etc.
Company B is basically a customer of Company A. The jobs are dispatched to the drivers just like any others customer's jobs. However, any jobs that I complete on behalf of Company B do not show up on my commission report from Company A. Nor does Company A pay me for those jobs. Instead, I receive a second pay check Company B.
What really bugs me is that I never applied for employment with Company B. I never completed any paperwork for Company B either. Yet, I have two different employee numbers with the PEO. And I receive a W-2 from each company at the beginning of the year.
Nobody really understood the two pay check thing. And neither company will explain it. But can a company just add someone to its payroll like that?

