This happened around 7 years ago. I got an interview at a veterinary clinic that was a direct competitor to a clinic I previously worked at for 6 years. During my interview the Employer asked what I'm looking for as a wage. I told him $14 hourly, as that was the wage I wanted from my old work but my former boss refused. The Employer said “we can definitely do $14” and I was hired. However, first he wanted me to do 2 days work unpaid “for training”. I reluctantly agreed, but should have seen this as the first of many red flags come.
After my first 2 weeks, I received my pay and it is $11 an hour, which was minimum wage at the time. I ask my employer why it wasn't $14 and he gives me some bs about “well, I have high hopes for you but I just need you to prove yourself to me by taking initiative and bringing in more clients”. Again, a total red flag, but I was getting along well with him and the other veterinarian, so I decided “to prove myself” by cold calling old clients like he brilliantly suggested.
After about a month and a half of me doing my regular duties, “proving myself”, and also doing a shit ton of covering shifts for other employees last minute with zero overtime pay, I received an email from a veterinary clinic 2 blocks up the street that was seeing if I was still interested in a position that I had applied to earlier. I took an interview and they offered me the job for $14. The next shift I had, I asked my Employer if he's happy with the work I've done so far and if he can now honour the hourly rate he promised me during my interview, just out of curiousity. The guy seriously told me that “the other girls have been here for 1 year and get the same wage, so he can't give me a raise because it would upset them”. I got mad and told him “first of all, my wage has nothing to do with the other staff. Secondly, I have 6 years experience in the veterinary field in total, they have told me themselves this is their first job in a vet clinic and both of them have been here for only a year. Third of all, I went to college and became certified as a veterinary assistant. Your “other girls” are not trained professionaly, and quite frankly, it shows. Therefore, I'm going to take a job offer up the street from here”.
Tbh, I don't remember if I gave him 2 weeks notice or not. When I received my final pay, there was no vacation pay at all on it, which is mandatory in Canada. I texted him demanding my vacation pay that I was entitled to and he texted me back saying I was “irresponsible and left a sour taste in his mouth because I made him do a lot of work for the hiring process and left so soon. I told him “that's called owning a business”. I also added that he shouldn't be watching porn in his office (because I walked in on him once looking at the nasty. Luckily he was ONLY looking at the time I walked in.)
Tldr – was promised a certain wage rate during interview. Cheap ass employer had every excuse in the book not to pay me promised wage, plus he was caught watching porn.