Cohan v. Medline Industries, Inc.

Defendant-employer did not violate either California or New York state wage payment statutes when it calculated plaintiffs-former employees’ commission payments by factoring in any negative sales growth, as measured by sales from prior year, rather than by calculating only positive sales growth in months where such growth occurred. Defendant did not violate either law because defendant’s accounting for negative sales growth in commission calculation was not deduction from earned commissions, but rather was part of contracted for means of calculating commissions in first place. Ct. rejected plaintiffs’ claim that defendant’s practice of carrying over any balance for negative year-end commissions to offset future positive commissions from subsequent year constituted impermissible deduction from wages, where said calculation was in accordance with agreements defendant had with its employees. Moreover, while defendant could not shift its general business losses onto plaintiffs, defendant could account for negative sales growth, where calculation was tied to specific salesperson’s territory.