Recovering Unpaid Sales Commissions From an Employer

You closed the deal, the customer paid, and the commission never showed up on your check. Or you left the company, and now your former employer says anything not yet paid out is forfeited. In Ohio, you can generally recover commissions you’ve already earned, most often through a breach of contract claim based on your commission plan or agreement.

The main qualification is that what counts as “earned” depends on your plan’s terms. Ohio’s wage-penalty law may also not apply to commissions the way it applies to regular pay. 

At Simon Law Co., I help salespeople in Chagrin Falls and throughout Northeast Ohio figure out whether a missing commission is owed and how to pursue it. If you’re comparing a commission statement against what you believe you earned, contact my firm for a free consultation. I can help you understand where you stand before you sign or accept a “final” payout. 

First Steps to Take If You Believe You’ve Been Unpaid

Commission disputes are usually won or lost on documents, and many of those documents live in company systems you may not be able to reach for long. A few careful steps now can preserve your options without committing you to a lawsuit. 

• Compare your commission statement to your own sales records. List each deal you closed, the date, the amount, and what you expected to earn, then match it against what you were actually paid. This often shows whether the gap comes from a single missing deal, a rate change, or an undisclosed chargeback. 

• Find the plan that applied when you made each sale. If your company revised its plan during the year, the version in effect on the sale date usually controls the terms of your deal. Save every version you received, along with any acknowledgment you signed. 

• Save records about your own pay before you lose access. Pay stubs, commission reports, quota emails, and CRM screenshots showing your closed deals are all helpful. Stick to information about your own sales and compensation, because copying confidential customer lists or company data can create separate legal problems. 

• Ask for an explanation in writing. A short, professional email to your manager or payroll asking how a commission was calculated creates a record of when you raised the issue and what the company said. If you’re an independent sales representative, send a written demand by certified mail. Under Ohio law, a company that fails to respond in writing within 20 days can be presumed to have acted willfully and in bad faith. 

• Don’t sign a separation agreement or release without reviewing it. These documents often include language waiving claims for unpaid compensation. Once signed, a release can be difficult or impossible to undo. 

• Write down the key dates. Note when each commission should have been paid and when you left the company. Those dates determine how much time you have to act. 

None of these steps requires you to accuse your employer of anything, and many disputes resolve once you lay out the numbers clearly. If the company doesn’t give you a satisfactory answer, the records you’ve gathered become the foundation of your claim.

How Can Commissions Affect Your Overtime Pay?

If you’re paid commissions and are eligible for overtime, those commissions must be counted when your overtime rate is calculated. Under the federal rules on commission payments outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29 § 778.117, commissions count as pay for hours worked. They belong in your “regular rate,” the hourly figure that time-and-a-half is based on. That stands even if commissions are paid monthly or quarterly. 

For example, an inside salesperson who works 50-hour weeks and receives overtime based only on a base hourly wage may be underpaid on every overtime hour. Some sales roles are exempt from overtime, such as outside salespeople who regularly sell away from the employer’s place of business. Your job title alone doesn’t settle whether you’re exempt. Your actual duties and pay structure do. 

Employee vs. Independent Sales Representative

Ohio has a separate statute for commission-based independent sales representatives. It requires the company to pay all commissions due within 30 days after the relationship ends, plus commissions that come due later within 13 days of their due date.

If the failure to pay was willful or in bad faith, the company can owe up to three times the unpaid amount, and the winning side recovers attorney’s fees. 

That statute expressly excludes employees. If you’re on a W-2, your claim generally proceeds under contract and wage law instead. If the company labeled you an independent contractor but controlled your schedule, territory, and methods like an employer would, the label itself may be wrong. Misclassification can open the door to overtime and wage and hour violation claims. 

Deadlines and Records That Protect Your Claim

Under Ohio law, you generally have six years to file a breach-of-contract claim based on a written agreement and four years for an oral agreement. These deadlines usually run from the date the commission should have been paid. Ohio lawmakers have considered a bill that would shorten both periods, so it's safer to act well within them than to wait. 

Start gathering records as soon as possible, especially if you’ve left or expect to leave the company. Useful documents include every version of your commission plan and any acknowledgment you signed, sales reports, CRM screenshots showing closed deals, emails about quotas or payouts, and your pay stubs. Once you lose access to company systems, this evidence can be much harder to get. 

Reliable Representation for Employees in Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Recovering an unpaid commission usually comes down to a few questions: whether you met the conditions your plan set, which version of the plan applied when you made the sale, and whether you’re an employee or an independent representative under Ohio law.

Your answers will determine which claims are available, from breach of contract to underpayment of overtime, and how long you have to bring them. A commission that looks forfeited at first may be fully earned once you line up the plan and sales records side by side. 

At Simon Law Co., I represent employees, not employers. If your commission check came up short or disappeared after you left a job, contact my firm to schedule a free consultation. Bring your commission plan and pay records, and I can help you pursue your earned compensation. Based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, I serve clients in the Cleveland area and in Chicago, Illinois.