I just needed to tell someone and I guess hoped I would just get some advice?
For context I'm a 1099, or contract worker, so not even an employee of the company. I work in the tourism industry where I pick up tourist and take them around to America's national parks, big cities, and other tourist spots on trips anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks. The company I primarily get work from allows me to live in their “guide house” as kind of a subsidization of not paying super well. When I started they basically said: “It doesn't make sense for you to move out here and pay for a place to rent or live if you're going to be on the road all the time”. All of this is important later.
So this company hasn't given me a paycheck since April 1. Before each trip I have a contract saying that they will pay me within 14 days of me turning in the paperwork (expense reports, receipts, driving logs, etc.). I now have a trip I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow, and I still haven't been paid, and they owe me more than $6k. I called my “boss” a couple days ago and just told him “you're gonna have to find someone else to do this trip because I'm not doing anything until I get paid” and he told me that he talked to the owner of the company and he should be starting on my paperwork on Friday, ergo tomorrow. The problem with that is
A) It's already been 90 days and there is absolutely no excuse to go so long without being paid. Plus there was no communication what so ever from the owner that it might a little delayed or anything.
B) I was already told I was supposed to have money in my account on Monday, and that didn't happen.
C) If he starts my paperwork tomorrow, I wont get paid until Monday at the earliest.
I guess I should also mention, that while this is the longest I have ever waited to be paid, and I have always eventually been paid, this has been a reoccurring thing, where I have to constantly pester the owner to pay me. Another shitty thing is that I use my own money to tip the 3rd party guides we use at different sites, and I get a per diem for food every day that they reimburse me for, but the reimbursement hits at the same time as the paycheck, so essentially I have given the company an interest free loan of my money for the last 3 months. I also just pay for my meals with my credit card, but I haven't been getting any money to pay it off, so if I hadn't used my savings I would be getting charged interest for the money I essentially lent the company. Also I don't want to sue them for breach of contract because again I live at their house and don't want to “bite the hand that feeds me” and also I just don't have money and maybe I'm just ignorant but feel like it would be a lot of trouble for potentially being paid within the next few days.
My confliction comes because, my “boss” is actually a really good dude, and I have enjoyed working for/with him, and I really hate to screw him over like this, because I really don't think there is anyone else available to take over this trip, especially because I only told him a couple days in advance, and he's not responsible or in charge of payroll. Also because I'm supposed to be taking a group of 10 foreign tourists tomorrow, and I'm potentially fucking up their vacation and a once in a lifetime opportunity for them coming to the states and seeing our amazing national parks. I can't help but feel like I'm being selfish and that I've already waited this long to be paid, so what is another few days? But at the same time, WTF. How do they expect me to keep working for them and not be paid? I'm sure the owner, and the owner's dad and brother who also work for the company haven't had missed paychecks. I'm sure my “boss” hasn't either. I know some of the other guide's haven't been paid consistently either, but non of them have been waiting more than 3 months. So anyway, now I'm just really nervous that I'm fucking up these people's trip and that I'm gonna get kicked out of the house. I don't pay rent and never signed anything to live there so I'm not sure what kind of renter's rights or squatters rights I have, but the “caretaker” of the property is the owner's brother, and he's a real son of a bitch, and it just makes me nervous that I'm gonna come home from the gym or something, and the all the locks will be changed.
Anyway, I don't really know what I'm expecting from this post, I tried to organize it and not ramble too much, but I just don't know what to do, and I just felt like I needed to tell someone. I know I need to find a new job, but the fact they pay for my housing and all the utilities, makes it really hard to move on to something else, especially because all the money that I should be getting will essentially just go towards paying off all the debt I wracked up from not being paid.