Throwaway just in case; I’m in my first real job out of college working in an in home sales position. When I interviewed one of the things I was hard set on was not cold calling or door knocking, and being given leads by my company. I was assured that I would be given 1-2 leads a DAY starting out, moving to 2-3 once I had proven myself (that’s like 30-45 leads a month). Im in Massachusetts, and I am provided a base salary that is under the minimum wage. I’ve been here for a while and in the first couple months I had anywhere from 5-10 leads each month; I assumed I was just new and talking with other hires it seemed that way for most newer people (this job has a SUPER high turnover rate so most people were not there longer than a couple of months). It got a bit better during the summer but then lead flow decreased dramatically in July/August/September. I’ve had under 5 leads a MONTH for 4 months straight with my boss assuring me that more would be coming in our one on one meetings. However in group meetings higher-ups address people who “feel like they aren’t getting enough leads” by saying they need to perform better to get those leads. In addition higher-ups are now throwing around things like requiring referral and self generated sales each month, even though that wasn’t listed on the job description and still isn’t on the current job postings. I think this is to shift the burden of the decreased lead flow onto the sales team. While I get that more leads go to higher performers, there are people in my office getting 30+ leads a month, while I, and about another 1/3 of my office, get 3 (or around that number). One month I had one of the highest closing percentages in the office, least amount of cancelled projects and a high amount of referrals. The next month I had 3 appointments! In addition, we get paid most of the commission on installation, with that taking usually ~3 months. The company doesn’t pay commission on sales you made after you quit, and with the super fast turnover that means they save money on a huge amount of commission pay to salespeople. Its at a point where I’m definitely frustrated, but my family is recommending I go to the wage and labor board. What has happened is definitely shitty and frustrating but is it actually illegal? I get the feeling my family is just protective, and I also can’t seem to find any clear information on what exactly my rights are in this situation.
TLDR; commission heavy job that promised 30-45 company leads/month has been giving me <5/month while other employees get that and more. Just sleazy or do I have anything concrete to report to wage and labor board?