On March 17, 2025, the Supreme Court of New Jersey held that “commissions” must be considered “wages” under the New Jersey Wage Payment Law (WPL) and cannot be excluded as “supplementary incentives” because they are tied to...more
What should employers do when there is a dispute about the amount of commissions owed to an employee? Should the employer pay the undisputed amount, withhold the disputed amount, and then wait for a determination from the...more
On March 17, 2025, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held in Musker v. Suuchi that commissions are included in the definition of “wages” under New Jersey’s Wage Payment Law (“WPL”). Wages under the WPL are defined as...more
When litigating claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), litigants are aware of long-standing case law that essentially awards a prevailing plaintiff with their attorneys’ fees absent extraordinary...more
We previously wrote about the procuring-cause doctrine here. As a refresher, the procuring-cause doctrine provides that a salesperson or other agent who contracts for a commission becomes entitled to payment of the commission...more
On March 28, 2024, in Sutton v. Jordan’s Furniture, Inc., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) upheld a Massachusetts Superior Court decision finding the furniture retailer’s commission-based compensation scheme...more
In Klauber v. VMWare, the First Circuit upheld an employer’s use of a provision in its compensation plan that allowed it to modify commissions on certain large or atypical sales. These “windfall” clauses are common in sales...more
Psychologist Abraham Maslow once observed, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail.” That sums up the state of commission litigation under the Massachusetts Wage Act:...more
In a recent decision in Kennedy v. Weichert Co., the New Jersey Appellate Division concluded that the “ABC Test” under the Unemployment Compensation Law is inapplicable in determining a real estate salesperson status an...more
Under California law, an employee is exempt from California’s overtime requirements and other wage and hour laws if the person is employed in an administrative capacity. To meet this exemption, California’s wage orders and...more
A recent Ontario Superior Court decision, Kerner v. Information Builders (Canada) Inc., 2020 ONSC 2975, clarified whether an employee was entitled to commissions that were “booked and billed” after his job termination, but...more
In Massachusetts, a commission is a wage subject to the Wage Act when the amount of the commission “has been definitely determined and has become due and payable.” Accordingly, an employer’s failure to pay a commission which...more
On February 12, 2020, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued an opinion with significant implications for Massachusetts employers with commissioned employees. In Parker v. EnerNOC, Inc. (SJC-12703), the SJC...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Complex class actions often present a scenario in which some or most of the putative class members are subject to arbitration agreements, but the named plaintiff is not. In Gembarski v. PartsSource, Inc.,...more
Vehicle dealerships may have a bit more flexibility in determining which employees are exempt from overtime following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued this week that specifically rejected the decades-old principle that...more
• In Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Hector Navarro, et al., the U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 that service advisors at car dealerships are exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). • The Court held...more
North v Metaswitch Networks Corporation, 2017 ONCA 790 [Metaswitch] is the latest in a series of employee-friendly appellate level decisions where a contractual termination provision is not enforced. The Ontario Court of...more