- Jurisdiction
- Illinois
Hello!
Thanks in advance for any advice. We are a start up company that just finished one year of being open for business in the state of IL. We have an employee that we hired with a base pay + a 2% commission (This is the word used in the offer letter) on orders. By accident we have been paying this employee 3% on all orders, because the employee has done a good job we let this go. Now we have reviewed our numbers after 1 year of being open and realized that outsourced jobs are at very little profit margin and we have lost money on these jobs after commission payouts. We have revised the commission structure for ALL employees where commissions are only on in-house jobs.
This employee in question refuses to sign an updated employment letter/employee handbook, stating "Illinois wage payment laws do not allow employers to unilaterally change compensation for their employees without their employee's agreement". The employee is also asking for a large % in base pay increase.
#1 - Are we allowed to change commission structures? This change would be effective as of 11/3 and we would still adhere to the prior structure for sales completed prior to this date.
#2 - Since we overpaid on commissions, do we have any leverage to state that we would need to take back overpaid commissions?
Thank you!
Thanks in advance for any advice. We are a start up company that just finished one year of being open for business in the state of IL. We have an employee that we hired with a base pay + a 2% commission (This is the word used in the offer letter) on orders. By accident we have been paying this employee 3% on all orders, because the employee has done a good job we let this go. Now we have reviewed our numbers after 1 year of being open and realized that outsourced jobs are at very little profit margin and we have lost money on these jobs after commission payouts. We have revised the commission structure for ALL employees where commissions are only on in-house jobs.
This employee in question refuses to sign an updated employment letter/employee handbook, stating "Illinois wage payment laws do not allow employers to unilaterally change compensation for their employees without their employee's agreement". The employee is also asking for a large % in base pay increase.
#1 - Are we allowed to change commission structures? This change would be effective as of 11/3 and we would still adhere to the prior structure for sales completed prior to this date.
#2 - Since we overpaid on commissions, do we have any leverage to state that we would need to take back overpaid commissions?
Thank you!