My husband got a job (as an independent contractor) at the beginning of November installing & hanging Christmas lights. This job was seasonal & paid $30/hour. He was told that he would be paid at the end of each day he worked. He worked a full day on November 2nd & everything went great. Boss paid him via Venmo. Then it rained for a week & they couldn't work. The next day they worked was on November 9th. My husband worked 11.5 hours that day. At about 6:00 pm, when they were wrapping up, the boss asked if my husband would prefer Venmo or to follow him to his bank for cash — but he really made it seem like he preferred my husband get cash. He was owed $345. The boss mumbled the name & location of his bank and then proceeded to take off like he was on fire. My husband caught up for a while, but at some point a big truck got between them and the boss apparently sped off. My husband drove to the boss' bank while trying to call & text him, to no avail. He was all alone when he arrived at the bank.
We are in Texas fyi. When we Google info on the topic of non-payment for an independent contractor, we see that he has 30 days to report the issue to the state labor dept & the federal labor dept. But there is no clear way on those websites to file such a claim. My husband thought about calling the Texas Workforce Commission; however, we aren't 100% sure if they deal with anyone other than regular W-2 employees. It should be noted that he is so angry & frustrated about this that it's difficult for him to focus on figuring out what to do. He's not on Reddit, so I thought I'd post this myself.
On 11/2 the boss had me send him a Venmo request for that day's earnings. So multiple times beginning on 11/9 I have requested the missing $345 from him, which has gone unpaid. For what it's worth, we know this man's full legal name, his business name & his home address as well. My husband thought he smelled alcohol on the boss' breath on the afternoon of the 9th — so perhaps he wasn't thinking straight or he's just a functioning alcoholic. Anyhow, we were seriously counting on that money. And time is ticking away. We would greatly appreciate any wisdom or advice/guidance on what to do in this situation. Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this, sorry it's a novel.