Non Paying Boss

[mikemat31]

So little update. Naturally he didn't reply to my first text. So I texted him today saying as of right now you owe me $300 if you can pay me in full by the end of this week I will accept $200. It gotten to the point where if you don't respond to this message I have no choice other than to go to the labor board.

He replies

Are you stupid. your going to get us both in big trouble. You work off the books remember which is illegal for me and you.

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL I am his employee I accept what he gives. Its not illegal for me to work, its illegal in the ways in which he chooses to employ me. I replied either we can do this the easy way or the hard way, i am willing to work with you but you keep ignoring me

[alldayrj]

Do u have documentation of your hours? Get a day planner and write it out so you have written evidence of the dates and times. Its almost worth the 300 to make his life hell. I built a house with a guy last summer and same story. Paying late led to no pay for 3 weeks. Obviously i stopped working for him but he owed me 600 and my tools we're at the house. He would never answer or say he wasnt there. One day i was working in the area an showed up with my skid steer on the trailer and blocked the driveways. Turns out he was there. Walked in, grabbed all my tools while he watched. No cash but i continued to hound him and i think he paid me 3 months later
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[Bautieri]

Originally Posted by mikemat31

So little update. Naturally he didn't reply to my first text. So I texted him today saying as of right now you owe me $300 if you can pay me in full by the end of this week I will accept $200. It gotten to the point where if you don't respond to this message I have no choice other than to go to the labor board.

He replies

Are you stupid. your going to get us both in big trouble. You work off the books remember which is illegal for me and you.

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL I am his employee I accept what he gives. Its not illegal for me to work, its illegal in the ways in which he chooses to employ me. I replied either we can do this the easy way or the hard way, i am willing to work with you but you keep ignoring me

That doesn't sound like much incentive for him to pay you on time.

You've been given some excellent advice so far which you've pretty much ignored. Maybe it's time for you to walk away and accept the loss. You seem like you're a bit too nice to do what it takes to get paid, even if this bottom feeder has no regard for you.

[Swampy]

I had somewhat a similar situation in the past with a landscape company, in the little horror story of my life.

Never paid OT, first year was great, but the following years he came out saying anything over 50 hours a week is overtime. What qurek'ed me was he'd merge/fudge time cards where if one week it was 60hrs, and the next week was 40hrs. The check was just writen out to just a 100 hrs no overtime. Which come to find out years later that federal government states 40 work weeks, everything over 40 is OT.

Other thigs was in spring it took upwards of 6 weeks to pay the first check out. I confronted him about it saying I have rent, cell phone, gas bills they are now late. He cut me a small check saying it was a advance, funny thing is the checking account was still negiative after cashing it. Now I kind of just blew it off, which was wrong, understanding that customers pay every month and we get, supposed, to paid every 2 weeks.

Was late a paying a few days, stating his accountant was out of town, or something. He got the point after two weeks of work one day, Friday came (yeah pay day), and no check stating his accountant was out of town. I walked out the door, no pay no work. Got the check that afternoon.

Then I stupidily agreed to go salary with him, well his verison of salary. Ment I didn't get overtime nor did I get the same amount on the check every 2 weeks. Well long story short, I confronted him about the changing pay checks that if this was salarly where is the difference going every pay period. His response I can only pay you for the hours worked, I looked at him and told him this isn't salarly, His response was I can't pay you that every two weeks.

So thus I just became a bag of S&*T employee, 6am start time turned into 630am start time for me, blades where only sharpened if I had time, and equipment was maybe cleaned every two weeks. Now if you ever met me in person I'm not normally like this, always 10 minutes prior, very easy going, and hardly ever get mad.

I did contact the WI Dept. of Labor about the unpaid OT, I was required to show proof meaning time cards that where punched by a "time clock" not hand writen out or pay stubs. Even mentioned the fact he threaten to fire me if I left for Annual Training for the Army, or would hold my check against me for the number of days I was gone for military training. Such as if I was gone for 4 days to Ft. McCoy, he'd hold it for extra 4 days.

Thank god you got out ahead of time, I was stupid and stayed with the guy for 5 years.

[Kelly's Landscaping]

300 dollars is laughable its a dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak house. Now I had a former boss having a bad year so I cut him some slack and he kept taking till I had 15 checks totaling over $10,000 take home. Now that is something to get mad about and it took him till about February with snow work before he was able to finally pay me. He managed to screw me out of 2 weeks at the end of the year but at-least I was separated from him and started my own company a few weeks later. Now he did this to a little punk much like yourself who's daddy got involved and they arrested him on a lawn for failure to pay an employee a couple hundred bucks a few years after I had left.

The difference I guess was he always intended to pay me and said so but had no intention of paying the kid and that got the labor board involved. I wouldn't negotiate the amount he owes you down. If he owes 300 and it means the world to you then ask him do you have any intention of paying me what you owe. If he says no or ignores you then your path is clear and bring the labor board in the next day no need to play games this has been going on to long already.

[humble1]

So have you called the labor dept? Yet what did they say?
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[PLS-Tx]

$300 may not be a lot to some but i bet it was when you were 17.

Call the labor board!!
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[mikemat31]

I didn't call the labor board. One of our best family friends is a lawyer, her daughter was sick in the hospital so we didn't want to interrupt her. I am going to have my mom contact her within the next few days I will keep you all posted