A company that isn't paying employees is not continuing to run.

If they fail to pay me, is that breach of contract

I am not qualified legal consul and if the fine points of law are really important, I recommend hiring competent legal consul experienced in these matters.

That bullshit aside, if they are not paying you find another job. If the company raises a fuss, I recommend the "fuck you, sue me" (FYSM) approach. It's simple. If the company can't afford to pay employees, it almost certainly does not have money to pursue legal action in regard to your contract even if it thinks it has a case.

Usually, employee salaries are the last expense that a company keeps paying because without employees things go down hill faster and there is less chance of recovery. But if the company isn't paying you, then it almost certainly is not paying other bills. And those creditors have lawyers and any money for legal fees within the failing company will be directed at that problem first.

I have some savings so I might be able to survive for a few months on those

A CEO who expects you to do that (or even asks), doesn't give a shit about you. People of character are uncomfortable exploiting other people. The CEO already has exploited a month of free labor to keep their hope of making money alive. You are already out a paycheck. The CEO knew when the money would run out a month ago. Instead of allowing you to get your affairs in order, the CEO mislead you.

Misled you over money.

Good luck.

It's not fun but get qualified advice. With whom you can discuss your exact case.

I disagree with the advice that legal consul is urgent. Assuming the OP stops working for free, tax issues, if they exist, have already occurred. Hiring a lawyer does not change that. Determining if there is a problem requires forensic investigation. If there is a forensic investigation, someone else will be paying for it because it is their money. Without a forensic investigation, there's no tax problem (like a tree falling with no one hearing).

More importantly, the first order problem is finding a new job. Mucking about with legal consul is a distraction from solving that. And again there is no urgency. The normal circumstances are an employee finds this out long after the fact and systems are tuned to normal circumstances and dealing with the system normally is more straight forward.

In software terms, it's YAGNI in the best case and JIT in the expected worse case. The worst worst case is only marginally worse than the worst expected case.

1. Get your co-workers contact info. Keep in touch with them. Someday these guys may bring you a job and vice-versa. Keep in touch with all the people you've worked with. Your "network" will help you in the future.

2. Stop working and start searching for another job. This a horrible time for looking unfortunately. "As much as I'd like to keep subsidizing your business, I've got this whole 'eating and living indoors' addiction that I need to maintain ."

It is generally very good, and I would highly recommend you read their website and talk to them first. Someone else has already posted the link and it sounds like you should get the acas thing going asap.

Generally speaking in the UK not paying employees is a really big no-no.

What's even worse is he could have furloughed you all weeks ago and have the government pay you all, and he instead kept going without the cash to pay, so it sounds like he doesn't give a shit about any of you.

Do not trust any promise he makes, anything verbally agreed you should summarise and email him from a personal email address you control, confirming what was said and agreed.

The time interval sounds vague. If you had to pick a future funding outcome in the current climate... it's not very optimistic for funding early stage companies. And what's to say if some less than optimal funding terms come around, your salary won't be cut because the company needs to weather the storm? The longer you stay unpaid, the less leverage you have in the future too because the less you can afford to entertain offers and interviews with longer timelines (let alone send a lot of applications because you'll have to be working). Probably better to frontload the job search and try to get another offer.

If you decide to stay, I would demand equity, warrants, and/or some kind debt contract. If the company goes under, it would give you more power to be a debtor--not that means anything to help get your funds.

I agree. If management knew they might not be able to make payroll this month they should have laid people off last month & paid up any/all outstanding wages. The fact that they didn't means they are making decisions that do not respect their employees interests or existing employment contracts.

I'd stop work immediately, quickly make copies of any documents (timesheets, email trails etc) capturing some evidence of days of work you have done that have not yet been paid for, and switch to full time job searching for an actual job.

Send brief written communication that you regard any previous employment agreement as broken since company is unable to fulfill its side of agreement by paying wages, state how many days unpaid wages you are owed and request payment.

When applying for new jobs, if asked why you are looking, frankly state that you are looking for work as your previous employer was a startup that ran out of money to cover payroll. Anyone who is vaguely professional will immediately understand.

For another point of view, see: https://www.askamanager.org/2012/09/my-company-isnt-paying-u...

I eventually got my pay after constantly contacting the CEO and basically begging for it. I think he took it out of his personal savings or borrowed it from a friend. I wonder if one of the other employees went through the legal route and that scared him into paying everybody.

The company never recovered and obviously not being able to pay me was a huge sign that the company was mismanaged and had bigger issues that would lead to failure.

I'm not going to advise you on legal issues, but I will say that you should use your time to find another job. If you're not getting paid to work, you should be focused on your next steps, not helping the CEO keep their business running for free. Imagine if you work for 2 months, the company closes, and then you have to go through legal channels to get even a small bit of money. It's just a waste of your time and life.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/pay/pr...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2012/jun/28/your...

Unfortunately that does require your company to take that step, which it sounds unwilling to do. (It is normally an offence for directors to continue trading a company whilst technically insolvent, but that has been rescinded temporarily due to coronavirus).

If you weren't still employed by them if/when they do declare insolvency, then I suspect you would be treated like any other unsecured creditor with regards to your missing payments.

I don't think this will change in the recent future either. Really sorry for the position you're in, but a job search should be your #1 priority now.

I think this is the primary question you are asking.

You are an experienced software engineer and with more and more companies looking to hire remote workers, your market reach is ever-widening.

In other words, you can find a better, higher paying, more challenging job anytime this week or the next.

So, the question you are really asking is what are the risks you are taking and what would you like in return for taking those risks?

We cant answer that question without knowing, among other things, what risks indeed you are taking - so what are they?

I eventually toned down my zeal because languages and people are dynamic and ever evolving and reflecting on Montaigne's Essais, written in late 1500s French, lead me to more understanding.

PS: I still consider that using "nucular" is insane.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular

basic rights such as getting paid for work done as an employee will be covered by labour laws.