If the company has the money to pay you, then this kind of incompetency is a massive warning signal. If the founder had his act together, he'd be telling you very day why you hadn't been paid and he'd be checking who needs immediate cash to cover something urgent. Chain of eMails explaining payment problems? Blah blah blah PAY ME WHAT YOU OWE ME. He knew payday was coming.

If the company doesn't have the money to pay you, then this kind of incompetency is a massive warning signal. If the founder had his act together, he'd have told everyone as early as possible the situation, and people who wanted to take the risk of going unpaid for a while would at least know what they're getting into.

There is no way to spin this that the founder isn't either dangerously incompetent or is just using you like a sucker.

Next job, please.

I have been in a similar situation and my plan was always to wait for the 2 months and started searching for a new job, but they ended up paying everything at most with 2 weeks delay.

If you just started and there are delays like that, you dont trust the founder, etc, then leave it is better for you, I don't imagine myself being a startup founder and just leaving my workers in the dark just because I want to get married, I would find some time to make the proper arrangements for the wages, explain everything well and then get married.

Run away.

No matter what you are owed money and they should be paying. Honestly you shouldn't have been hired if they didn't have the funds to support your salary/contract. I have sadly been in the shoes of being a founder and having to pay people a few days late and I scrambled and felt horrible that it happened. I also wound up making some tough decisions and cut head count to make sure it wouldn't happen again. Problem being clients don't always pay on time, or pay at all, so you have to be able to support the head count for at least some period of time to cover those times.

The founder may have good intentions, but honestly after 3 years, like others have said, these issues shouldn't happen so something else is up and you need to look for other work likely. Not sure what the rules are in Spain but in the US being late on a payroll if it hasn't yet reached the next pay period won't get you in much trouble (if any), but it is still bad business and a sign to you. And an employee could easily report you to wage and labor. I am not saying I'd cut and run for someone being a little late, but if I had other feelings things weren't right I'd bolt.

Also, the fact you say "we have been promised" makes me thing there are multiple employees in this situation and likely means you are all out of luck and need to find new work.

Are you an employee or freelancer and do you have shares? If you are an employee he has to pay immediately and I would enforce that now; as a freelancer I would discuss it with him and probably stop working depending on what he says.

What it shows is that when you were hired, there were no funds to pay you. The fact that on payday the founder ways honeymooning doesn't change that. It just indicates that the founder didn't want to deal with not paying.

Reading further down, I saw that the company has been around for three years. At this point, inability to manage cash flow via sales, investment, and/or loans is clearly a red flag. Not following through on payment two weeks running and blaming customers seems symptomatic of leadership that is not inclined to make hard business decisions.

In the end, if there's no payment, it's not employment.

Good luck.

I've also been paid early, again a day or two (mainly when payday comes on a weekend or public holiday). It makes everyone feel a sense of trust and value.

If the former, it seems like a basic lack of respect and empathy. I go foot over back to make sure my staff feel comfortable. This doesn't mean having food or massages as perks, it does mean at the least paying on time and replying (answers, not excuses) to concerns quickly.

Seeing how you are in Europe, you are most probably on probation for what, 2-3 months? I bet you are free to leave anyday until the probation period is up.

Know your rights.

A: Make deliverables contingent upon timely payment. Start looking around for better alternatives to spend time wisely.

When startups fail, the commonest cause is fcked founders. And your founder sounds fcked in spades.