I'm an instructor for a Mathnasium Branch in Ontario, Canada. I started working at the begining of Dec 2021.
During the first meeting with the owner, he told me that he will hire me under this provincial program which is giving grants to small businesses if the new hirees work a certain number of hours per week within a timeframe which ends around feb/mar. I told him that I will be available for 2-3 shifts a week which comes out to 8-12 hours. He said because there isn't enough time for me to work the required hours for him to get the grant, he will record my hours as 15 hrs/week and consequently pay me more than I work until I finish the program, then pay me less than I work and by around April it will all even out.
After his first two payments on Dec 23 and Jan 21, I noticed that not only am I not being paid more than I work, I am being paid much less so I created an excel sheet to keep track of my pay (the screenshot attached to this post). His third payment came after I asked him for it after which I had a 30-45 min convo with him about my pay and he basically said because of covid they have been low on money but he told his accountant to make sure he pays everyone at least once a month (on a few other occasions he did say he doesn't know why I haven't been paid and it must be an issue with his accountant since no other employee is missing payments).
Now it's been over a month since the third payment and the fourth one is yet to come so I texted him on March 25 that I have not been paid since Feb 18 and he said we would be paid at least once a month to which he did not respond.
It is March 27 now with no fourth payment (he owes me over $920 as you can see in the screenshot) so I texted him:
“Hey *boss*, As of right now your accountant owes me over $920. I'm a student with student loans and I need the money from this job. Having to ask you to pay me every time is really pushing me towards finding another place to work where I will be paid regularly and for the hours I work.”
I absolutely do not want to work another shift and I have one tomorrow. Did I do the right thing by that text? Should I have done it differently? What do I do from now on? I know my problem is almost negligible compared to the other horrors I see on this sub and my boss isn't the devil I see in those stories but I'm really clueless and have no clue how to approach this. Please help.
Screenshot:
Excel
Note: I will update you on how this goes cause I find it satisfying when someone posts their update on the situation in this sub