Expert: Arthur Naman - 3/31/2010

Question
Our sales team receives both a base salary plus a commission.  The base salary is paid every two weeks.  Commission payments used to be paid monthly, paying the sales rep for the prior month's earned commission.  Last year, the employer changed the structure to quarterly payments.  Since then, the quarterly payments have been paid to the sales team on the second fiscal Friday following the end of the quarter.  We have just received a fairly casual email saying that our first quarter 2010 commission payment will be paid at the end of April (3rd or 4th week) because the management is moving our payment timing to conform with other areas of the company.  I understand the merits of uniform procedures, but we are being notified of a change affecting the current payment due; without any true advance notice.  Isn't there a legal guideline which states that the employer must provide notice of a change at least 30 days prior to the change taking place?  Our written plan says "quarterly" without any indication of date, along with the disclosure giving management the right to change an part of this plan per their discretion.  However, there were emails in the past which referenced that commission payments would be calculated and paid "on the second fiscal Friday".  Plus, actual practice has been to issue payments on the second fiscal Friday.  Would you think the appropriate action by the company would be to advise of this change going forward?  A few weeks difference, with a sizeable payment (commissions were designed to be about 25% of a sales person's income) makes a big difference in budgeting a household, especially now.  Thank you.

Answer
I am not aware of any restrictions on the behavior of employers in this situation. If there are, it will be dependent on the state in question. thus you should speak to a labor attorney in your location.

In addition, the subject of your question is not within the parameters of this forum. There might be another forum on AllExperts.com where you can ask this.