Imagine working as an independent contractor, but instead of having a contract directly with a client, another person sets up the jobs and submits the invoices for you. What would you do if your payments were always late, and you thought you deserved to be paid more? Would you keep working with this person or talk to the client about your concerns?

In this story, one person is in this situation, and she dealt with the issues until she learned how much the person submitting her invoices was getting paid. Then, she decided to talk to the client.

Let’s read all about it.

Don’t want to pay me what I’m worth AND pay me months late consistently? Have fun losing your biggest client

This happened within the past 2 years.

I’m an independent contractor in a creative/artistic field. I run my own business and have for over a decade now.

8 years ago a friend of a friend recommended me to someone who basically does what I do, but also hires out other creatives to his clients. Let’s call him Kevin.

I submitted a sample of my work and he put me in his database. I landed a job thru him for a very very large corporation. A very well known excellent company. Of course, I was super thankful.

It was great except for one payment issue.

I went on my first few jobs, which took place at the big company’s local offices.

It was fun. They were great.

Kevin was the one who would submit the invoice. Big company paid him, then he paid me.

However I immediately noticed that I was getting paid like 3, 4 and sometimes 5 months later!

OP couldn’t even complain.

I would inquire to Kevin and he blamed the big company.

I took his word for it, but it was really annoying and it disrupted cash flow for me quite a bit.

I couldn’t say anything to big company because technically, they weren’t my client. They were his client. And it’s unprofessional.

Kevin hardly did anything regarding her sessions.

After a few sessions, he stopped arranging the schedule and left that to be between myself and big company.

Fine. No biggie. Actually easier that way.

I knew he was being paid for each of my sessions. I made $100 per working hour. I assumed he made maybe like $25 or $50, considering he wasn’t even coordinating the sessions, and literally didn’t even know when they were occurring.

He literally did nothing but invoice them.

This sounds so frustrating.

I’d sent him session sheets afterwards, so he could send invoices.

He hardly ever responded.

In order to get paid, I’d have to email him several times. It took up to 5 months to send me a check sometimes.

One time, I had threatened to not attend sessions anymore, because things were getting so bad.

He promptly replied and paid me.

I dealt with this for years.

Kevin’s cut was much bigger than she expected.

One day, someone from big company forwarded me an email chain that had some info on it that I wasn’t supposed to see.

I found out that for every one hour I worked, Kevin made $200 and I made $100.

THIS TICKED ME OFF SO BAD.

Here I was doing all the work, even coordinating the sessions and he was literally contributing nothing other than to sit back and not pay me on time.

I found out many times that company actually did pay him, and he would delay sending me my cut…by MONTHS.

Things changed during lockdown.

Fast forward to the pandemic. In 2020, I could no longer go into big company because of lockdowns. I could still work for them, but like every one else, I had to work from home and we’d use ZOOM.

But this meant I had to use my own studio, as well as my own very expensive equipment. This is what I do with most clients, and I usually charge more.

So, I reached out to Kevin and asked him if I could at least get paid $150 per hour, instead of $100, considering I was now using my resources which are expensive.

He replied that “it just wasn’t in the budget. Sorry.”.

But she knew something he didn’t know she knew.

He didn’t know that I knew he was making $200 for every $100 I made, while he didn’t do a damn thing except pay me late.

And now I’m using MY resources.

He always spoke to me like I was some little kid. Like I’m getting paid to mow his lawn or something. Very patronizing. Like I’m a girlscout selling cookies.

Idk. It was weird.

Talking about money matters worked to her benefit.

Next zoom session with my client, project manager Scott and I have a discussion about Kevin. I tell him the issues I’ve had.

I never spoke with this client about the issues before because it’s unprofessional to speak with the end client about money matters, but this had gone too far.

They said they’d received similar complaints from other creatives. They offered me a direct contract!

We negotiated and I asked for $200 an hour. This saved them $100, and I made $100 more. (Remember, they were originally paying $300 an hour. $100 for me, $200 to worthless Kevin). It was a win win!

Kevin didn’t even know.

Since Kevin never had me sign a contract, there were no legal issues in doing this.

We didn’t tell Kevin, and I officially began working directly with them.

Every single creative followed suit.

Kevin thought they just didn’t have work coming in.

Kevin was in for a surprise.

When he came in to pick up some things at big company, he saw my name on a session sheet. He was like “You have a collaborative project meeting with xxx today? She didn’t tell me.”

They broke the news to him and told him all of his creative partners are now working directly with big company.

It was a huge win for OP.

I asked Scott what Kevin’s reaction was.

He said he just stood there with a very confused shocked looked on his face. There was an awkward 10 seconds of silence and then he just walked out.

In the meantime, I’m making way more money, I get paid ON TIME (imagine that) and my workload has increased. I had my best year financially in 2021.

Kevin lost because of greed. Bye Kevin!!!!!!!

Kevin really did let greed destroy him. Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person would love to do the same thing.

Another person points out a surprising mistake that Kevin made.

Here’s some more praise.

Kevin brought this on himself.

Standing up for herself was a win win situation for almost everyone.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a job-hunter who was shocked when the recruiting company told them too turn down a job because the salary was too low.