Dealerships and the PPP loans
I don’t know if this is the correct place to post this, but I have been an employee at a dealership for the past 10 years, working various jobs ranging from car porter to new car sales. I first got into sales right before COVID hit and had only been selling for about four months when I was temporarily laid off because of the pandemic.
To give some context about sales: most new and used car salesmen and saleswomen who work at dealerships are paid on a draw system. This means we are paid an hourly rate (mine was minimum wage for my state), which is then taken out of our commission. If we make more in commission than our draw, we get to keep the extra commission. If we do not, then we “owe” the dealership that money. I give this background because it is critical to understanding why I am so angry at the owner and upper management of the dealership.
Fast forward a month or two after the layoff, and we were brought back using the PPP loans that Congress included in the CARES Act. This “loan” stated that whatever amount the business took out, they had to use at least 60% of it on payroll for employees to either return to work or continue working.
When we were offered the chance to come back, it was at a higher rate than our usual minimum wage in order to incentivize us to return instead of staying on unemployment. For the sales staff, this sounded fine because it was guaranteed pay while there were very few, if any, new cars to sell. Everything seemed fine… until we received our commission sheets.
A majority of us (probably all of us, though I can’t say for certain) were shocked to see that the higher amount we were promised was being treated as a draw. This was never communicated to us when we came back to work. We thought we were getting the incentive rate plus our commission. Instead, if our commission did not exceed the higher amount, we didn’t get to keep any of it.
We all felt this was wrong, and I even went to the owner and complained. I told him that the PPP “loan” would most likely be forgiven, meaning he would essentially pocket 100% of the profit while we—the workers and taxpayers—paid our own wages. He gave me some BS explanation about how they didn’t know for certain that the loan would be forgiven, so he had to be cautious. Sadly, there was nothing I could do. I was pissed, and so were the other workers, but what were we supposed to do? We had bills to pay, and risking finding another job during that time just wasn’t worth it. This all happened in 2020.
Well, a couple of days ago, I got curious about whether the money had actually been forgiven. What I found absolutely set me off.
Not only was the money forgiven, but it was for a higher amount than I originally thought: $1.8 million. On top of that, he took out a second loan that was also forgiven a year later for the same amount. For those unaware, 2021 was a record year for dealership profits. This means the owner took out an additional $1.8 million knowing it was going to be forgiven and was able to pocket it as profit—all funded by taxpayer money.
I was disgusted.
Business owners like him are the reason working Americans are struggling and can’t afford cars. They let taxpayers bail them out, pocketed the money, and then raised prices that never came back down.
I won’t name the dealership because I am still employed there and need the job. However, this dealership prides itself on slogans like, “We do the right thing every time” and “We’re a family.” What a crock of shit. The owners and upper management are unbelievable pieces of shit.
Dealerships are never ethical. All they care about is money. It doesn’t matter whether you are a customer or a worker—they will do everything they can to bleed you dry.