My Employer Owes Me Money – What Can I Do?
Ever get tired of a job and you want to quit? That happens to many people more often then not.
However, what do you do when you are having problems getting paid for work you’ve preformed?
This sometimes happens in the workplace. Do you have any legal rights? Of course you do.
Having an employer withhold money from you from work you have already worked is illegal and they know that.
Steps to Take If Your Boss Isn’t Paying You
Some steps/options you may have if you are ever in a situation like:
- Obtain Your Hours – You are going to have to get a print out of all the hours you worked. This could be done by going to the HR Department at your Employment and asking to get them to print you out a copy. By law, they have to do this. If they refuse, you can simply use a schedule that you have written until the courts are involved and they are demanded by the court.
- Confront your Employer personally – Don’t be afraid of stepping up to your ex-manager. If he/she owes you money, then the nice attitude stops and you need to get serious with the issue. This way they know that you are not backing away from this and that you are not forgetting about it. Don’t do anything rash or violent. That will only get you kicked off the property and you will have to pursue it with a strike already against you.
- Advise Him of the Consequences – Let him/her know that they could be reported to the Better Business Bureau and a claim can be open against them. This normally will make them a little nervous and it will get their attention. You want to do this so that there is a verbal agreement that you have told them of the incident.
- Have a Witness – Always have a witness no matter what you do. You are going to have to document everything that you say to the employer so that you can use it later in court if you need to. Your witness can also be in to testify of everything he/she heard during the course of your meetings with your employer.
- Pursue a “Small Claims Court” lawsuit- Hopefully it doesn’t have to resort to this, but you are going to have to go to a small claims court to pursue the issue if it gets to the point where your employer is not going to cooperate with you. You can easily get help filing the forms necessary by going to your local court and get all the help you need.
To file a small claims court, you are going to have to file it immediately.
In more cases then not, the employer is going to want to avoid all of the drama of courts and legal fees.
Be aware though, that under the Employment Act Chapter 91 Part II § 7A states, “Where any amount to be paid by an employer under subsection (4) is not paid in accordance with the direction of the Minister and the employer has been convicted of an offense under subsection (7), the amount or so much thereof as remains unpaid shall be recoverable by the court as if it were a fine and the amount so recoverable shall be paid to the employee entitled to payment under the direction of the Minister”. Here is where you are going to have your legal rights covered.
You have more rights under the Employment Act. You need to be able to know your rights as a citizen and not be afraid to prosecute when needed.
So the next time you have to say, “My Employer owes me money!” you will know your rights as a citizen.
It is always a good thing to familiarize yourself with the statutes of the Employment Act. This way you can know your rights a little bit more. Quitting your job is going to make it so that you have to wait two weeks before getting your paycheck. However, if you are terminated from employment, you have the right to receive your earnings that day.
I had worked for this company for 3 months and last month when i went to get my check for 80 hrs they decided to paid me only for 40 hours and hold the other 40 for one more week. I have all the hours approved. Plese help me to resolved this matter
Thanks,
Giselle
Hi,
I had worked with a company X on L1 visa. My employer X had made delay many times in paying my out of pocket reimbursements and salary. Due to these concerns, I had got my H1 visa from another employer and resigned from X on Feb 25th 2011. Now, X owes me $6500.00 for my out of pocket reimbursements. He hasnt made any decision yet. I have all the proofs of expenses that were aprpoved but not paid.
My question is can DOL help me to get my funds back from X?
I have my last comission check is being held by my former empoyer, can they hold this as long as they want?
I worked on commission, so whent he client paid and the project was closed out I was to be paid. This is a materials only project, no install was provided, the CFO is now saying I have to wait for the install to be completed, and if they are done by the 15th of this month, I would get paid in 45 days. The employer was paid in full the first week of March, all the invoiced are paid, I feel I shouldn’t have to wait any longer, DO I have any rights? with earn commission, the stuff I see online is confusing.
Is it legal for an employer to require an employee to maintain a mandatory investment (as petty as $20) in a company without any pre-employment contract or agreement to do so? I am a server at a local restaurant in South Carolina and my manager has threatened me with disciplinary action to termination for not bringing my personal money in to make change for customers. Aside from the pettiness of the amount, I’m pretty sure its not legal for him to threaten my job for disallowing him to dictate my personal finances. I have complained to his superiors as well as blatantly refused to do what he says, yet no action against him has been made, nor has he changed his stance. What are my legal rights in this situation?
Go directly to the department labor for your state and submit a claim.
I keep getting told that because I work in Florida that there is nothing I can do. My ex-employer owes me two paychecks and my vacation paycheck. I was told that even taking him to small claims court would not work because they do not enforce the judgement.
I don’t now what to do..
If an employer owes money, may I keep products or services worth the amount owed by the employer?
The BBB? Puh-leeeese. If your employer doesn’t give you your paycheck in a reasonable amount of time (48 hours, in my opinion) – go directly to your State’s Department of Labor. It will take 2-8 months depending on how busy/how fast your DoL works, but you’ll get every dime you earned. And on top of that, the company may have to pay a penalty.