Every paycheck is important in this economy. Which is why, when some workers say they were stiffed by a local business, they contacted KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy. But what Clancy learned about DisplayMaker Productions in Seattle goes much deeper than just a few missed paychecks.

DisplayMaker has a high-profile bright-orange building, and some of the highest-profile clients in the Pacific Northwest. Its Web site shows the displays it's created for aerospace giants, car companies, trade shows. And for the past 10 years, The Bellevue Collection has hired DisplayMaker to decorate for the holidays.

“The job was, pretty much, set up the decorations in the Bellevue Square Mall,” is how one worker, Andrew Howe, described the job he did for DisplayMaker.

VIDEO: Company Hired Workers But Failed To Pay

Howe and two other workers say they spent time, including the entire night before Thanksgiving last year, preparing Bellevue Square for holiday shoppers. They say they were each told they'd be paid up to $15 an hour for about 10 hours of work.

“It was extra money for the holidays,” Carley Williams told Clancy. “We never got paid.”

Carlos Segarra claims “after two weeks we received information that they were having trouble with their bookkeeping, their accounting. That it might take another week or so, and then that turned about a month, then a few months, and now it’s been quite awhile longer than that.”

For six months, they say they never received any payment from DisplayMaker Productions, despite repeated efforts to collect.

“None of my phone calls have ever been picked up or returned,” Howe told Clancy.

Williams adds, “you can’t get through. Nobody answered.”

And Segarra claims the same thing: “they haven’t been returning any of the text messages or e-mails.”

So KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators went to the company's headquarters just off Interstate 5 looking for answers. No one came to the door, but while Clancy and her photographer, Brian Doerflinger, were there, two people claiming to have done catering work for DisplayMaker told them they were there to find out why they hadn’t been paid the $16,000 owed them.

The caterers didn't want to talk on camera, but claimed that company co-owner Byron Trostle told them recently they would get their money. Which is exactly what Trostle told KIRO 7 about the former workers Clancy interviewed: That he "fully intends to pay everybody." But in a phone conversation he claimed the disastrous economy has dealt DisplayMaker a serious blow and says the IRS has taken over $300,000 in taxes and penalties within the past year.

Andrew Howe isn’t sympathetic to that excuse.

“I understand maybe times are tough for them, but that’s not really my problem. I performed a service and I deserve to be compensated," said Howe.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna says a lot of paychecks are being delayed these days.

“Accounts receivable that used to be paid in 30 days are now taking 90 days,” he tells Clancy. “Everybody’s slowing down payments as a strategy to get through these tough times.”

But DisplayMaker Production's tough times have apparently lasted longer than just the recent economic downturn. According to documents obtained by KIRO 7, the company has been sued by creditors multiple times in civil and in small claims court. In addition, the Washington state Department of Revenue says DisplayMaker has a history of not paying state taxes on time.

Mike Gowrylow with the Department of Revenue tells KIRO 7 that 23 warrants have been filed by the state to collect back taxes since 1990, all since paid off except for the most recent, filed February of this year, for a lien against DisplayMaker of nearly $20,000.

“It comes down to what’s right and wrong,” Segarra tells Clancy. “Regardless of the money issue, whether it’s $1, $100, $1,000. It’s just wrong, and to me, that’s enough.”

“We just want our money,” Williams echoes.

Bellevue Square spokeswoman Jennifer Leavitt tells Clancy that she doesn’t know why the workers didn’t get paid right away. She says the Bellevue Collection paid DisplayMaker in full, in advance of the decorating job. Leavitt says the Bellevue Collection has now terminated its relationship with DisplayMaker Productions, something Randy Trostle says he didn’t know until Clancy told him.

Meanwhile, after KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators talked with Trostle, he apparently started to make good on his promises. Two of the three people Clancy interviewed on-camera say they’ve recently been paid.

Attorney General McKenna advises anyone who hasn’t been paid for a job to pursue legal action. If the amount is less than $5,000, you can file in small claims court for a small fee, and not even hire an attorney.

Get more information about small claims courts in Washington here.