My one day off of the week and I woke up early at 7:00am for a court appearance for speeding. I called my job before I left the house and asked the HR Dpt if our checks were ready. They said they were and he took my name down specifically which already gave me doubts about if the checks were actually ready. I make a 1 hour commute to court to be told the date on the ticket doesn’t matter and that I’ll receive a letter with another date. Great, waste another hour driving back and then to work. It’s 9:30am now. I go inside for my check and the guy I had spoken to previously told me their supervisor was “looking for them now.” Waited 30 minutes and they told me to try again tomorrow but no promises. I have borrowed like $120 from my mother during these 2 weeks to pay for gas and food. Most of it went to gas, the place I work for provides free candy in the break room that you must eat there and cannot take. It’s something though, I’ve been eating 3-4 a day because I need calories but I feel like shit. I have made friends with a lot of the fast food workers in town and have 2 very understanding and helpful friends that buy me dinner when we hang out. Im hungry and broke. We all work 60 hours a week and 6 days a week. This was my one day off to get a haircut that I’ve wanted for 3 months, change my oil that’s a bit more than overdue (I even do it myself to save money) as well as other maintenance it needs) gas to go to work. New shoes since mine have holes in the sides and are old as hell and discolored. One day this week I got off work and slept till the next day when I had to clock in. I assume this will be a common occurrence with back to back 60’s. Why do I put in this effort and I’m not payed on time to insure I can afford my basic necessities, while someone who makes my salary in a month sitting at a desk goes on vacation. I called the labor board and they lazily told me to file a complaint on midnight when the clock strikes over to midnight. The day certainly isn’t over yet but they brushed off all of our concerns about our checks with non-answers to get us to leave them alone so they could do whatever else like it wasn’t important. I tried calling them a moment ago and it went to voicemail this time. I didn’t say much at all last time except making sure he took down my name and number which I’m sure he didn’t bother keeping. How should I approach this aside from the labor department? Im starving and at my wits end. I’d like to stop borrowing from others and get my check I worked my ass off for. And also if I do file the complaint to the labor department they’ll likely fire me as the labor department made sure to tell me “I’m in and at will state so they can fire you without any reason, let alone an illegal one. Then it’s out of our hands.” This is the highest paying job I’ve ever had so I can’t lose it but I need to be able to get it into their heads that they need to figure this out and it’s not just a paperwork issue for the rest of us. I just need to prepare beforehand so I don’t get flustered and angry when they try to dismiss me. Help Is appreciate, I live in Illinois