Another day, another blow to employers from the California Court of Appeals. Earlier this month, the appeal court invalidated a commission-only plan that did not separately compensate non-exempt sales representatives for rest periods. What does this mean for your sales team? Read on. If you want to go straight to the source, the case is Vaquero et al. vs. Stoneledge Furniture LLC.
The 30 second summary: Stoneledge’s commission plan paid sales associates by commissions only. It did not specifically compensate employees separately for breaks. The Company did allow employees to take a 10-minute rest period for every four hours worked as required by law, but the rest periods were not tracked or separately compensated.
Although Stoneledge won in the lower court, the appeals court reversed, relying on the plain language of California Wage Order 7: “authorized rest period time shall be counted as hours worked for which there shall be no deduction from wages.” The court also relied on two prior appeals court decisions, concluding that Stoneledge’s commission-only system violated California law because it did not separately compensate employees for rest periods.
The takeaway: Employers with non-exempt sales employees who are paid by commissions-only must make sure their systems are tracking and paying rest periods separately from commissions. As a reminder, sales employees who spend more than 50 percent of their time engaged in outside sales are exempt, and this decision will not impact the way in which they are paid.
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