Unpaid Commissions Attorney
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If you’re a commissioned employee, such as a pharmaceutical or medical device sales representative, your employer should pay you according to the terms of your employment agreement. While most employers pay their workers fairly, you might find yourself in a situation where you haven’t received the money that your employer owes you for your work. When that happens, you have rights under Indiana employment laws.
Unpaid commissions fall under Indiana’s definition of general wages. Wages include all compensation for labor or service whether or not you’re paid hourly. If you’re paid by the job, by commission or by any other calculation, your reasonable and usual calculations for payment are wages under Indiana law. Both during your employment and when your employment ends, your employer must pay you the commissions that you’ve earned for your work. This includes up to the date of your termination.
Unpaid Commissions Are Not Bonuses
Generally, discretionary bonuses are not commission. A bonus is an amount that an employer has no obligation to pay. If an employer voluntarily pays employees over and above the employment contract, there’s no obligation for an employer to continue to do so either to current employees or to past employees.
When a bonus is not discretionary, it’s included as wages. For example, if an employer pays each employee a bonus for every ten sales, it’s not a bonus. In that situation, it’s part of the employee’s wages. When we work with a client, we carefully review the facts of the case and the employment agreement to determine the nature of the payments.
Looking At Your Employment Agreement
Often times, the question arises as to whether an employee earned the commission while they worked. In most cases, this becomes a matter of looking at the employment contract or agreement. A poorly worded agreement can create questions and doubts that an employer might use to try to avoid paying an employee fairly.
Late Payments
Indiana law requires an employer to pay employees for work performed within ten business days. That means you should get paid every two weeks. If your employer doesn’t pay you on time, they might have to pay a penalty. This can be up to ten percent of your overdue wages per day until they owe you double your original wages.
How We Can Help
If you believe that you may have unpaid wages, we invite you to contact us. We can sit down with you to get to know you and learn about your story. Then, we can discuss how Indiana law applies and what we can do to get you the compensation that you deserve as well as damages.
In some cases, we may be able to advocate directly with the employer. In other cases, it may be appropriate to use the Indiana Department of Labor’s Application for Wage Claim. If the employer terminates your employment involuntarily, you must file an Application for Wage Claim before you file a claim in a civil court.
Our team of skilled professional employment attorneys has years of experience navigating complex unpaid wages claims on behalf of deserving Indiana workers. When your employer hasn’t paid you fairly, there are a lot of steps to take in order to properly bring a claim for damages. Our team knows the ins and the outs of these legal requirements. We take the pressure off of you by putting our experts to work, and we use our training and experience to make sure that you get the maximum compensation that you deserve.
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Attorneys with a Focus on Unpaid Commissions
Chip Clark
Partner