It is actually likely as bad as you'd imagine. Think about how you could rationalize paying minimum wage, but then docking the pay. Give up? Read the comment by `pud in another thread a couple months back:
The shorter seems to be that they were always on commision, with a default of minimum wage. Should a return occur, the commision would be removed, even if that dropped them below minimum wage.
EDIT: Note further in the thread that a Canadian worker always got minimum wage. So it's possible the sleaze varied by region.
In countries with working legal systems, minimum wage means what it says, so removing the commission to drop pay below minimum wage levels would be illegal, and likely to be enforced.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8665082
The shorter seems to be that they were always on commision, with a default of minimum wage. Should a return occur, the commision would be removed, even if that dropped them below minimum wage.
EDIT: Note further in the thread that a Canadian worker always got minimum wage. So it's possible the sleaze varied by region.