I got my hair cut by one of my best friends the other day. She tells me she had to take a week off of work 2 weeks ago because she got covid and the owner was giving her the runaround about her sick leave pay. I've heard some questionable stories about this particular boss in the past (doesn't even cut hair anymore, rich parents, crazy high commission rates, “earned” (more like stole from her employees) almost $1 million last year, etc). Could do a whole other post on this particular boss but that's not the point here.
My friend said that the owner takes a commission out of sick pay because hair stylists are commission-based positions. The owner currently takes 55% of her sales, so I'm assuming she took the same percent out of her sick pay. My friend sort of glossed over this but alarms were going off in my head.
I'm certainly no expert on how sick leave is earned or payed out, but this feels like a red flag. An employer taking a commission out of sick pay? That can't be legal… right? My friend is very good at her job and I don't want her to get screwed. The only info I've found about sick leave for commission-based jobs is from this website (we are in New Jersey): “If you’re paid by commission, whether base wage plus commission or commission only, your rate of earned sick leave pay is the hourly base wage or the state minimum wage, whichever is greater.”
Has anyone heard of this happening before? Is this reportable? Where can I find some more info?