I only get paid full commission if an order is marked as 'claimed.' But no one showed me how to do this. Is there anything I can do?

Question: Where I work at, most of my pay is commission. Well, we only get paid the full commission if the particular order is marked as "claimed." In training, no one ever showed either me or a co-worker how to check where it would say "claimed" or not. My manager just noticed that some accounts are not marked as "claimed" and he offered to fix the ones that are within the last month but I have some from 4-5 months ago. Is there
anything I can do? Sorry this is so confusing.

Answer: As a general rule, it's up to the employer to set out the policy or form of calculation by which employees receive commission wages. If there is any ambiguity as to these rules and/or policies, the ambiguity is supposed to be construed in favor of the employee. If you have good records establishing your right to the back commissions, it may well be worth exploring further whether your employer should reimburse you the difference (there is at least an argument that the employer has been "unjustly enriched" by retaining your commissions). In your instance, I obviously don't know what your employer's policy is, but I would not forego the commission payments without at least checking with the North Carolina Department of Labor and running this by the Department's Wage and Hour Division. The phone number is 919-807-2796, or 800-NC-LABOR. If the amount of money is enough, you might consider a consultation with an employment lawyer - consider calling the Lawyer Referral Service at 800-662-7660.