Can a company charge back money paid for account bonuses if its not classified as commission?

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Can a company charge back money paid for account bonuses if its not classified as commission?

We get paid if we hit a certain of sales per week. Its classified as bonus and
not commission since they legally cant give commission to certain license
holders. Now they are starting to charge us back for bonus paid on policies that
cancelled within 90 days of binding. Is this allowed? I was under the
impression you can only charge back commission earned and not bonus for achieved
sales

Asked on June 30, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Florida

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 7 years ago | Contributor

Bonuses are not required: employers freely choose whether, when, and under what conditions to pay them. This means that they can make it a term or condition of the bonus that it can be charged back under certain circumstances. They can only do this for bonuses earned from when they provide notice of the new rule: i.e. if the announced the change effective June 1, it only applies to bonuses earned for sales, etc. made from June 1 on, but would not apply to sales made May 30th and earlier. Those earlier sales would be governed by the bonus terms and conditions applying at the time they were made.


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