Serious question for pay check aficionados

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

So my little law firm is not doing so well financially. Things are dire. I have to beg for my paycheck. We get paid -supposedly- every Monday - there is no direct deposit offered. It's two lawyers (partners), a part-time assistant (who has not gotten paid either), and another paralegal who is married to one of the lawyers (you can bet she's gotten paid).

I have yet to be paid. I don't know if I will get paid today. I have bills already past due. I am here in NC; I have shown my displeasure on many occasions; I am 'on strike' - that is, I'm not doing any work at all. Of course, I am submitting my resume anywhere I can.

This is getting ridiculous; this is not the first time this has happened (one time I was paid on a Friday). Suggestions?

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. A few options

1. Contact the department of labor or its NC equivalent, because they can enforce wage claims for you.

2. "Pay up or Fire me" - Talk to the partners. Let them know that you have personal obligations and really need to be paid on time. You understand that finances might be stretched now, but you need find something stable. If they lay you off, perhaps you'll qualify for unemployment while you look for other work.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

2. Updates

Did Number 1 but I have to wait 10 days from the day when I was supposed to get paid, before they can take up my claim.

Did Number 2 a few times but still the same result. I can't quit voluntarily (though I'm tempted) because the job market around here is tight and what I do is very specialized.

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. .

:hug:

I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. That happened to me amny years ago when I was working as an associate attorney in a small law firm. Idiot SOB offered me a job and then could not meet payroll two f*cking weeks later. I was either not paid or was paid pro rata wages for the duration of my brief tenure there. I stayed for a short period of time figuring some money coming in was better than no money - meanwhile I was expending considerable effort looking for other employment. One by one every single person in our office found other jobs and came in and gave a single days notice (or less) of their intent to leave. Within a year the firm was out of business.

A few suggestions:
(1) Do not deposit your pay check. Go cash it at the bank on which it is drawn.
(2) Contact the bar association and make them aware of the circumstances. Many bar associations offer assistance to their members regarding a variety of practical issues - and they have the capacity to discipline ethical mismanagement. Probably one of three things are occurring: (a) the firm is not generating enough revenue for its own survival; (b) it is mismanaging or misallocating the funds it generates; or (3) it is not collecting revenue for services provided.
(3) Contact the state labor board and file a complaint. There are laws governing how often you must be paid.

Good luck.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

4. Thanks!

(1) I'm always cashing the check. I never deposit it.
(2) I think it's a mixture of all three probabilities.
(3) I have to wait 10 days from the date of the supposed paycheck before I can file.

The lease of the office space and advertising costs are killing this firm. Coupled with the fact that half of the business is residential real estate closings, you can imagine the joy. Moreover, our immigration business suffers greatly because the great majority of immigrants in this area are in the U.S. illegally and there is nothing that can be done (that is US law; if you enter without inspection generally there is nothing that can be done, even if you marry 40 US citizens or have 10300 US citizen children), and most of them can hardly afford the lawyer fees.

[RebelOne]

5. I worked for an attorney at one time.

Whenever I got a pay check, I would have to call his bank to make sure the funds were there and then rush like hell to the bank to cash it in case someone else he owed beat me to it. He was notorious for bouncing checks. He had to change banks every few months.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

6. Holy Spit!

thankfully, it hasn't gotten that bad here yet. If I could, I'd quit today, but I don't think I would be eligible for unemployment in NC for voluntarily quitting. So I have to either bite it or find another job pronto; I've been applying for other jobs for weeks now and nothing has come up. What do I do about my bills?