In October of 2003 I was hired as a phone/file/fire putter outer by a one woman manufactures rep in St. Petersburg, Florida. I was doing so well that I was lead to start making my own contacts and start traveling. In April of 2004 after coming back from a business trip w/ my boss in Las Vegas she said that she wasn't able to pay me hourly anymore (was $10.00 an hour) and that I would have to work off of commision if I wanted to stay. I thought about it and realized that I was doing fairly well and that I was already owed about 3k in commision. That amount was paid up. Shortly after that I found out that I was about 4 months pregnant. I kept working but wasn't able to travel much due to the pregnancy. I worked up until about a 3 days before I had my baby and was back in to the office when she was one week. I never got a maternity leave pay. Is that legal? Now these four months later, she wanted me to travel 3-4 days a week. Not possible. She is now holding my last check and has been since the before christmas due to her not getting paid on one of her own acct.'s. Mind you the invoices that I turned in have nothing to do with this acct. Is that legal. Also, she's was very shady about things and hid invoices from me and even bad mouthed me to clients and manufacturers for things that I didn't even do, to cover her own mistakes. What can I do to get my last check it's approximately 950.00. All I want is my money, there is more owed to me than that, I know there are more invoices for work that I did that are sitting in that office that she never plans on paying me for. What can I do? Anything? Please help me. Broke mom in Florida.

An employer does not need to offer paid maternity leave, as long as a paid leave is not being offered for others who are out on medical leave.

Also, it is illegal, under federal law, for an employer to withhold pay to cover debts owed to the employer by a customer.

You can file a claim with the US Department of Labor. You can find their website at http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/