Employer Not Paying Your Salary? Evidence and Complaint Guide

Who this guide is for

This guide is for employees and workers in India whose salary or wages have not been paid by an employer — fully or partly, for one month or many. It applies whether you are still working there or have recently left. It is useful if:

• Your monthly salary has stopped arriving in your bank account, with no clear reason given.
• You are being paid late, in instalments, or only part of your agreed pay.
• The employer keeps saying funds are tight, a client has not paid, or salaries are delayed for everyone.
• You are a contract employee, probationer, or fixed-term staff member and your pay has been withheld.
• You are a freelancer or gig worker chasing an unpaid invoice for work already delivered.

This guide covers non-payment during or shortly after employment. If your basic salary kept arriving but separation dues — bonus, leave encashment, or the final settlement after you resigned — are stuck, see the companion guide on delayed full and final settlement after resignation. If your pay arrived but looked smaller than expected, read our explainer on why your salary is lower this month and hidden deductions.

What you can do this weekend

Friday evening

Open your bank statement and your payslips side by side. Write down each month that is unpaid or short-paid, the agreed amount, and the date salary was normally credited in earlier months. This simple table — period, amount due, amount paid, shortfall — becomes the backbone of every letter and complaint you send later.

Next, locate your offer letter or appointment letter. This is the single most important document, because it states your agreed salary and confirms you are an employee. Save a clean copy outside your work email, in case access to office systems is cut off without warning.

Saturday

Build your evidence bundle. Download payslips for the last several months, export your bank statement showing past salary credits and the gap, and save attendance, biometric, or login records that show you actually worked. Take screenshots of your work-from-office swipes or remote login dashboards if you have them.

Now export every relevant message. Save the email trail with HR and your manager, and export WhatsApp or internal chats where pay was discussed, with dates and timestamps visible. If anyone admitted in writing that salary is overdue or promised a payment date, that admission is valuable — keep it safe.

Store everything in at least two places, such as a personal email and a phone or drive. Employees often lose access to company laptops and email overnight, so do not rely on a work account to hold your only copies.

Sunday

Draft a calm, factual written request to HR or the employer. Use the template later in this guide as a starting point. State the months unpaid, the total amount, and a reasonable date by which you expect payment. Keep the tone professional — your aim is payment, and a measured letter reads well later if a labour officer or judge sees it.

Finally, make a short plan for the week. Decide when you will send the written request, how long you will wait, and the escalation step you will take if there is no genuine response. If a large sum is involved or you have already been ignored, line up a short consultation with a labour lawyer for early in the week.

Documents and evidence checklist

Step-by-step action plan

Step 1 — Confirm exactly what is unpaid

Be precise. List each month or component that is unpaid, with the agreed amount from your offer letter. Note when salary was due and when it was actually paid in earlier months. Vague claims like "they owe me a lot" carry little weight; a clear table of dates and figures carries a great deal.

Step 2 — Gather and preserve your evidence

Assemble the documents from the checklist above. Keep digital copies in more than one place. Export chats and emails with timestamps. If your salary used to arrive on a fixed date and then stopped, that pattern in your bank statement is strong, neutral evidence of non-payment that no one can dispute.

Step 3 — Raise it in writing with HR or the employer

Send a clear, dated email or letter to HR and your reporting manager. State the unpaid amount, the period, and a reasonable date by which you expect payment. Keep it factual and courteous. Avoid threats at this stage. A written record matters far more than a phone call, because a call leaves no proof and is easy to deny later.

Step 4 — Understand your wage rights in plain terms

Indian law treats timely payment of earned wages as an obligation, not a discretion. Wage-payment laws require employers to pay within prescribed periods and restrict the deductions that can be made from wages. A company being loss-making or short of funds is not a recognised excuse for not paying earned salary. The exact law, wage thresholds, and the authority that applies to your case can vary with your role, sector, and state, so describe your situation accurately when you complain rather than relying on a single section number you found online.

Step 5 — Send a formal demand or legal notice

If the polite request is ignored or fobbed off, escalate to a formal demand. You can send it yourself or, better, through a lawyer as a legal notice. Send it by email and by registered or speed post so you have proof of delivery. State the amount, the basis, the documents you hold, and that you will approach the labour authorities or court if payment is not made by a stated date.

Step 6 — File a complaint with the labour authority

If the notice does not work, approach the office of the Labour Commissioner or the jurisdictional Labour Officer for your area. Many states have an online labour grievance system, and the central Shram Suvidha Portal serves establishments under central labour laws. Submit your written demand, your evidence bundle, and a short complaint setting out the facts and the amount claimed. Note the receipt or reference number.

Step 7 — Attend conciliation and pursue the claim

The labour authority usually calls both sides for conciliation — a meeting to settle the dispute. Attend every date, carry originals, and take notes of what is said and agreed. If conciliation succeeds, get any settlement in writing. If it fails, the matter may move to the appropriate authority or court for a formal claim. The correct forum depends on your worker category and the amount involved, so this is the point to take professional advice if you have not already.

Step 8 — Decide on the civil route for large or contested dues

Where the amount is large, the relationship is more commercial than employment, or you are a freelancer, a civil recovery suit or a summary money claim may be the more suitable route. A lawyer can advise whether a labour complaint, a civil suit, or both, fits your facts. Act without delay, because all of these routes have limitation periods, and a strong claim can be lost simply by waiting too long.

Escalation ladder

Copy-paste complaint template

Replace the text in square brackets with your own details before sending. Use this for the written request to HR, or adapt it as the body of a complaint to the labour authority.

When RTI can help

The Right to Information Act, 2005 applies to public authorities — central and state government departments, and public-sector undertakings. In a salary dispute, RTI is useful in these specific situations:

• Your employer is a government body or PSU: If you work for a government department, a government company, or a public-sector undertaking, you can file an RTI with its Public Information Officer asking for your salary-payment records, the sanction status of your dues, and the file noting on why payment is held up.
• Tracking a complaint you have filed: Once you have lodged a complaint with a labour department or other public authority, RTI can be used to ask for the action taken on your complaint, the inspection or conciliation notes, and the current status of your file.
• Inspection and enforcement records: Where a labour authority is supposed to inspect or act against an erring establishment, RTI can reveal whether any inspection, notice, or order was actually issued.

To file an RTI, see our step-by-step guide on how to file an RTI online in India. If your RTI is ignored or refused, you can escalate through our guide on filing a first appeal under RTI Section 19. For complaints that overlap with grievance redress, our overview of CPGRAMS and RTI together explains how to combine the two. For deeper strategy on using information rights in disputes, The RTI Playbook is a useful companion.

When RTI will not help

Be realistic about RTI's limits in a salary dispute:

• Private employers are out of reach: RTI does not apply to private companies. It cannot force a private employer to open its payroll records or to pay your salary. For a private employer, your remedies are the written demand, the labour complaint, and the civil or appropriate forum — not RTI.
• RTI does not order payment: Even against a government employer, RTI gets you information, not a payment order. Use what RTI reveals to support your representation or complaint; it is evidence and leverage, not a remedy in itself.
• It will not speed up money: RTI runs on its own timeline of roughly 30 days. To actually recover wages, the labour complaint and, if needed, the court route are the channels that can direct payment.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Relying only on verbal promises: A manager who keeps saying "next week" over the phone leaves you with nothing to show later. Get every commitment in writing, or send a short email confirming what was said.
• Waiting too long to act: Wage claims have limitation periods. Each month you delay weakens your position and risks the claim becoming time-barred. Raise it in writing early and escalate steadily.
• Losing access to your evidence: Employees who are suddenly logged out of office systems lose payslips, emails, and chats. Back up everything to a personal account now, before any confrontation.
• Resigning in anger without a plan: A hasty resignation can muddle your dues, notice pay, and final settlement. Decide calmly, and where the sum is large, take advice before you quit.
• Sending threatening or abusive messages: Keep all communication factual and professional. Aggressive messages can be used against you and rarely speed up payment.
• Choosing the wrong forum: A freelancer is usually not a "workman" for labour-department purposes and may need the civil or consumer route instead. Match the route to your actual status rather than assuming the labour office covers everyone.
• Ignoring independent proof of employment: Your Form 16, TDS records, and EPFO passbook can prove the job and past salary even if the employer disputes everything. Pull these alongside your payslips.
• Mixing up salary disputes with loan recovery: If a bank is sweeping your salary account for an EMI, that is a different problem; see our guide on whether a bank can deduct your entire salary for an EMI.