Needing Advice About An Employer Who Never Paid Me

(I’m not sure if I put this under the right category, i’ll remove if necessary) This is need a little explanation. I got my first job when i was around 19-20, i worked for a family friends screen printing company. It was from 2021-2022. During that time I went through A lot of medical issues and mental health problems, but my bosses were very considerate about almost everything. They were a married couple, they had 2 kids and they 3 dogs that they’d bring up to work every day, and a lot of the time i’d help them out with their kids, just because it got to be a lot with them there. It was my first job, i made sure to show up to work every single day if I wasn’t sick. I made sure my work ethic was good and tried to do the best that I could daily.

At first they were very good about paying me, but the longer i was there, the longer id go without a paycheck. I lived with my parents and wasn’t paying any bills, and they were having money troubles so i tried to be understanding. Around October of 2022 I started getting extremely burnt out, I was dealing with a mental health crisis and i’ll admit that my work ethic at this point wasn’t good, but I also had zero motivation to work because I was not being paid. I was making $17 an hour for 8 hours a day (sometimes i’d stay later if we had a big order) So my paycheck was about $500 a month.

I’ve kept every single paycheck from them. I received $1500 from my time between 8/15/22 to 9/15/22

I was given $500 for the work between the time of 9/15/22 to 10/28/22

I was given $500 from the work between the time of 10/28/22 to 11/11/22

I was at work nearly every day, with the exception of thanksgiving. They never paid me the full amount that they owed me for the month of October to december. In december they said I should take a break until the new year, then they’d bring me back and give me my full paycheck, but if that had happened I wouldn’t be here.

I reached out to them numerous times, got promises of payment, but they never went through with those promises. They were going through a divorce, I wanted to be understanding. It destroyed the relationship i had with them, aswell as the relationship my family had with them. l do not have any access to my timestamps anymore, and I bet they don’t either, which is why I haven’t taken legal action. I no longer care and i’m no longer sympathetic to their situation.

Is it too late to take legal action? Especially if I don’t have any proof of anything except my checks? I had messages from them at one point but I deleted them because I had just given up hope ages ago. I might be able to see if I have them on a different device.

I’m not the smartest person and i know i’m easily taken advantage of, but I don’t want to continue this way, i want payment for the hard work I was trying to put in every single day. I’m not sure if there’s even anything i can do at this point, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.