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My ex-boss is refusing to pay me for my last week of work?
Long story short I worked for a man for 7 weeks doing his marketing, graphic design, ect for his real estate company. What I thought would be a good opportunity turned into a nightmare. He promised me a steady part time job (I need part time as I'm a full time med student) and within a few weeks he demanded that I work more than part time or he'd fire me which he knew I couldn't afford. I worked as many hours as I could but my schoolwork started falling behind.
Then he became extremely disrespectful to me, insulting my career choice because he "made so much money" in real estate. He also decided he wanted me to work on real estate tasks in real estate programs, which I didn't know how to do and he hardly even tried to train me. When I tried to ask questions he became volatile and yelled or cussed at me so I got scared because he's a tall and large man and I was a 5ft tall college girl stuck in an enclosed office with him totally alone.
He also started refusing me lunch even though the hours I was working required it telling me "you can wait until the end of your shift).
I wound up having enough and quit after one particularly horrendous week.
Since then I've tried requesting my final paycheck twice and he refuses to give it to me.
He told me if I try to sue him for it he will counter-sue me for "more than I have in my bank account". He says that because I quit he took a huge financial loss and would accuse me of deleting his proprietary information(after I quit, I deleted everything I made for him off MY personal laptop but he never asked me for any of it and as I said, it was on my personally owned laptop NOT his business computer. I did not want to keep anything that reminded me of him after I'd quit) and maliciously making a typo on his business cards so he couldn't use them, costing him the money he had to spend to print them. However I had given him multiple proofs of the card before I sent it off and this "typo" is actually a miscommunication on what his website URL is. I actually have emails proving I sent him proofs that he approved. Would any of this hold up in court?
I live in a state where there are no laws regarding last paycheck so I would have to take him to court to get the money but at the same time I don't really have any money to take him to court...
What can I do? Should I just let it go? The check would only have been for around $300.
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I disagree somewhat with Razhie in that since he did not pay you for the work and the work was on your computer the work is your intellectual product. Then there's the fact he had you doing real-estate work without a license. There is some work within a Real-estate office for which no license is required but much of the work does require a license.
I also find it hard to believe in this day and age that your state does not have a wag and hours board. All states have some form, possibly under a different name. It is the job of the wage and hours board to see to it the child labor laws are respected and that employers pay minimum wages. Check with your state government I'm sure there is some form of this board within your state. These are the people you would file a complaint with.
Failure to pay wages owed can result in the loss of a business license. I once had an employer try to withhold from a final check several thousand dollars as his cost to replace me. I took him before the wages and hours board. My attorney, which they paid for, had me account for every penny they did not pay me correctly during the entire term of my employment. At the courthouse door they settled fro every penny for if we went in to court they not only would not have had to pay me every penny but the fines would have been more than double. I sued them for x amount then ended up paying me that and half again based on what I accounted for to my lawyer.
You could be looking at more than $300 dollars as daily interest compounds plus whatever other charges you can add based on the labor laws that every state has. So call the state government hotline and find out just what rights you have.
You can also call the Real Estate board and report him for unfair labor practices. They could if they see fit yank his license which is worth a lot more to him than $300.
My advice in short.
Step I. Call the state government or visit an attorney. Most attorneys will not charge you for a first visit. If your labor board is like mine he or she will accept what they pay for representing you.
Step II. Ask the Attorney about filing an unfair labor practice complaint with the Realty Board.
I do believe there are laws on your side of the table. Don't let this guy bully you out of $300.
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You should probably let this go.
Although you are safe on the approved proofs, in most cases work done while employed is the property of the company that employed you. There are a handful of exceptions around contractual work and creative intellectual property, but it's still very likely that you did something very wrong when you deleted all that work without providing him with copies of the files. It doesn't matter whose computer it was on, or even if the files were particularly useful, he still's very, very likely to have a legal right to them. He paid for the work to be done, and is entitled to what was produced.
Given that, and the pure cost of filing, you are unlikely to come out ahead on this.
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