So I was officially hired, via text message, on June 19th, to be a chef and kitchen manager, with a salary of $3800 a month, until things are up and running, for a bar and restaurant that was under construction. We had discussed during the interview that they wanted someone to fully run the kitchen for them, make menus, interview potential candidates…it would be my kitchen: my menu, my recipes, my staff. They only wanted to worry about payroll. This was supposed to be my dream job. We were supposed to open the last week of July. So I set to work making the menu, I met with one potential cook, I was given the logins to make the first orders from the food service companies. Spent months getting it right. Fast forward to the middle of august, we are finally given permission to be on site and start setting up, pending a final building code inspection, I'm told that the one candidate I met, who we agreed after the interview that we didn't particularly care for him, is now my sous chef and has a salary as well. So we work and prep and make all the sauces. For the last week I was there they kept harassing me about writing all my recipes down, never did cause I don't exactly measure when I cook and things were feeling off with the owners…get to the soft opening, friends and family of the owners, on 8/24. Been there all day getting ready open up and 30 mins after we open I'm walked outside and asked to leave. I hadn't been paid at all by this point…the 26th of August was the first check I received. It paid from 7/25-8/07…just the 2 weeks of my salary. Today, when I should have seen a paystub for my final pay I see they listed the check from the 26th as my last paycheck even though my termination was listed as being on 8/24. I contacted the department of labor here in Alabama, wage and hours division. They said because it's a new company that doesn't have any proof of profit yet, there is nothing they can do and I would have to either hire a lawyer or take a cut and file for the max of $6,000 in small claims court. Then there's the matter of the courthouse, and I called the one for my county and the one for the county the restaurant is in only to be told I'd have to shell out $370 just to get things started but I have to know what county the owners live in and file it with that court…I know the city they live in but it's in 2 different counties.
Is trying to get the pay promised a waste of time or how should I proceed….they owe me $6,621.37 from 6/19 -08/24: minus the taxes and the 2 weeks I've already been paid for.
Should I give up or try to find a lawyer…I have $1 in my account and was seriously depending on the final check