PetGroomer.com Magazine
45
April / June 2022
When Employees Are Employers, Not! Don’t Alarm the “Authorities?” Imagine you are a grooming business owner with employees. While sorting the day’s mail you notice an officiallooking letter from a state agency related to your being an employer. You read it and before you know it, you are in trouble! Apparently you are not compliant with employer regulations. You are instructed to attend a meeting with this state agency to discuss why you consider an employee act as an employer, and just how wrong that is. You are confused. In fact this is “crazy.” They have the wrong person, the wrong business, you pay all of your employees with paychecks with deductions. What the heck are they talking about? Did you know this happens every year and has for many years in the pet grooming industry? We have seen the letters. Sometimes these employers call the offices of PetGroomer.com asking for help. Sometimes they call simply to thank us for giving them solutions and eGroomer Journal
strategies for their upcoming meetings to resolve issues with the authorities. Have you guessed what the problem is? For many decades thousands of employers paying commission use a single commission system. They commonly pay 40% to 60% commissions to their employed groomers. When employers do not provide bather support along with the commission they deduct a bather reimbursement fee reducing the gross commission in dollars. For example, a groomer earns 50% commission on a $60 groomer, total $30 gross wage. The groomer doesn’t bathe and dry the pet. The bath is done by a company bather. The owner deducts a set amount from the $30 commission (perhaps $8 per for the use of a company bather). The groomer earns $22 for this groom. Warning. The employer should never include in the reimbursement fee for em-
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