My employer charges me 1.5 % for credit card fees charged to the company by customers on sales I made. Legal?
by Author on Monday, July 5th, 2010 | 4 Comments
I am fully commission sales rep in virginia and my employer takes out of my commission 1.5% of salesfor credit card fees from AMEx for customers who use their credit cards. I know it doesnt seem fair, but am I really liable for the companies fees?
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First of all he’s not your employer. You don’t charge employees for their CC transactions. You’re a 1099 employee, or a subcontractor generating your own sales that you profit from. Does "comission" come into play with your job? He’s got every right to have you absorb costs from CC transactions. You’d do the same in his position.
What does your engagement/commission contract say? That would be the controlling document. It’s not illegal — ie, it is not a crime — but it might be in violation of the agreement. You can also check with the Department of Labor, to see if this somehow violates wage and hour laws, but I would doubt it.
This doesn’t seem like a battle you can win. As a part of the AMEX User agreement the company must agree to not charge anyone fees to recover fees charged by AMEX.
You could contact AMEX and expose the company’s act but it would most likely cause your demise.
I would recommend keeping this in mind when doing business with customers and price your product/services appropriately.
Yes.
As long as the employer does this consistently for all employees.
(It sounds like he’s underwriting the first 3% of credit card fees, but because AMEX charges more, he’s not absorbing that.)