Answers Posted By Michael Tracy

Answer to Contract got cancelled in 1 week when I signed an initial contract for 4 months

Claim for wages, but probably not misrepresentation

The law is that the employer must pay you for all work that you performed. The fact that their client did not "approve" a project does not affect your wages. This is a risk the employer runs when they have someone work on a project that they might not get paid for.

In terms of passing up another job, the law is that there generally has to some type of material misrepresentation that you justifiably relied upon. There are special rules when you relocate to take a job, but you did not indicate that you did. The law for misrepresentation of job opportunities is more complex than I am outlining here, but I don't see a case for that based on the facts here. As a general rule, it is extremely difficult to recover for misrepresentation of a job, and it takes a lot more than the job simply turning out to be something different than promised.

posted Nov 12, 2008 2:38 PM [EST]

Answer to Ex: Store closes at 6pm. I am scheduled to work from 12-8pm.

Exemption for commissioned employees

The employer can always require an employee to work late performing any tasks as long as minimum wage and overtime requirements are met. As long as the total amount you earn exceeds the total number of hours worked times minimum wage, the employer is in compliance with minimum wage requirements.

In general, employees of retail establishments will be exempt from overtime if they make more than 1 and 1/2 times the minimum wage, and more than 1/2 of their total earnings come from commissions. The fact that they may be required to perform non-sales work does not affect the outcome. Since the exemption requires that at least 1 1/2 times minimum wage be paid for ALL work, the time spent cleaning the store, going to sales training, etc, as well as selling must average out to at least 1 1/2 times minimum wage or overtime is due.

posted Oct 1, 2007 9:01 PM [EST]