I work for a company which is behind on my salary.
The company might file for bankruptcy: how do I claim my salary before then?
This question is different from other postings. We are discussing how to get wages for employees before the company files for bankruptcy.
When a company files for bankruptcy there is no guarantee that they will be able to satisfy any of their debts. Assuming chapter 7 bankruptcy, the employees with unpaid wages become creditors. Assets will be liquidated and creditors will be paid based on priority. Employees with unpaid wages are high on the priority list, but not always at the top. If the company has no/insufficient assets then those employees would go unpaid.
There's not much you can do to guarantee your pay. If you are still working for them hopefully that gives you some leverage. Something like, "I understand things are tight, but if you can pay me 80% of my back-pay now then I can keep working." You'd have to know how dire things are to know what is reasonable to ask for. Meanwhile you should definitely be seeking other employment. Even if they do pay you, I'd seek other employment. If you aren't still working for them or they have absolutely no cash on hand, then likely you'll either be out of luck or have to wait for the dust to settle in bankruptcy.
An attorney could be worthwhile here, there are instances where the owner of the company can be held liable, but you can't squeeze blood from a turnip.
Contact the state government. They should have the equivalent of the Federal Department of labor. The state has laws regarding how quickly employees should be paid. They can contact the employer. Of course forcing them to pay employees, could force them into bankruptcy earlier.
Make sure that you are an employee. Have they been withholding taxes and FICA? did you fill out a W-4 form? Keep in mind that if they have been missing payroll, they also might not have sent the money to the government that they withheld from earlier checks.
You have to decide if continuing to work but not getting paid is sustainable for you.
In addition to very nice and qualitative @Hart CO answer I would like to add, that after becoming a creditor (when company's asset's is not enough to re-pay your salary) your rights as creditor may be defended in court. Court may issue additional orders obligating bankrupted company or other legal entities to pay your missing salary ASAP. In addition to that it depends on exact country too. Some countries may have additional government state funds to help to return money back to employees which companies can't do that. Usually such state funds will not repay full missing salary over period, but only part of it. But still it's better than nothing at all. Btw, some countries may have additional compensation package in state funds in addition to paying missing salary for an employee. So in these cases it may be even more profitable to wait for a company bankruptcy procedure end, instead of leaving job faster !
