I recently finished a job for a friend's neighbor and he took advantage of my trust in him to fulfill his promise to compensate me for my work performed. The defendant, closed escrow and was given 3-4 days to have his recently "sold" home vacated for the new owners to move in. I was asked , "last minute" to coordinate and assist with the move out for an unspecified $$ amount. I tried several times to discuss the contract rate before working and throughout the time I performed the work, only to receive the response of "you'll be WELL compensated for the work you perform". I decided to postpone the contract discussion so i could focus my time on the work to do. As part of my responsibility, laborers were hired off the street, to help complete the job at the rate of $10 / hour. My responsibility was to supervise them, assist and coordinate. the move. None of them worked over 8 hours to prevent confusion of payment per hour. I , on the other hand , worked on average of 12 - 16 hrs. per day for Seven consecutive days of DEDICATED HARD LABOR. I was paid a total of $870.00 for 87 hours of work. I WAS INSULTED. Does his statements qualify as a pre-determined rate for the contract since we can compare it to the hourly wage given to the laborers? His statement I feel determines that I deserve more than the laborers rate, because of my supervisor status title. I'm hoping to at least to have a small claims suit to recover my wages. Please advise.