Anyone that knows Lexie knows she is the first person to reach out and help when someone is in need. She is extremely selfless and a beacon of light for so many people, both in her personal life and professionally as a practicing therapist. She’s someone who is always there to support when someone else is in need, but would never express when SHE is the one that needs help, which is why we (her sisters, Sydnie and Emilie) are creating this GoFundMe for her.

In 2024, Lexie was 7 months pregnant and preparing for her maternity leave when her employer abruptly stopped paying her along with the other therapists at her practice. Lexie had been working there for 6 years when she started to notice a few red flags, such as abrupt changes to the billing department, a few months before her paychecks ceased. Lexie got an alarming email in January 2024 stating checks would be late, but the clinic owner assured they would get paid in the near future. Lexie continued to work without pay. As paychecks continued to be postponed, Lexie and Nathan got to the point where they needed to use savings to meet basic needs for their family. After a few months, Lexie made the decision to leave the practice prior to her maternity leave. She ended up working a total of four months without pay prior to the unpaid maternity leave. During maternity leave, Lexie and Nathan eventually had to rely on loans and credit cards to provide for the family. This was extremely stressful, but Lexie and Nathan still had hope they would receive the owed wages and be able to pay the debts off. As the months went on, Lexie reached out to the owner of the therapy practice numerous times with no response.

It got to the point that the owner stopped communicating with the therapists entirely and abandoned the business, selling the insurance contracts to another entity who was not responsible to pay the clinic owner’s debts. In mental health group practices, therapists often provide services to clients billed through insurance, with the practice owner receiving the full payment and distributing contracted percentages to the therapist. In this case, insurance companies paid for the completed sessions, but the therapists were never paid their share. The practice owner kept 100% of the reimbursement, which violated the employment contracts. The therapists worked hard throughout the summer talking to lawyers, but no one would take on the case. Unfortunately, Minnesota has no wage protection laws for independent contractors, even those working in licensed healthcare professions, and 1099 contractors cannot report wage theft to the Department of Labor or receive support from state agencies like W-2 employees can.

After maternity leave, when returning to work in June 2024, Lexie needed to change practices and rebuild her caseload, which negatively impacted the family’s income for another 5-6 months. Still having no luck acquiring the payroll payments she was owed, Lexie decided to bring her previous employer to conciliation court. Not surprisingly, Lexie’s previous employer didn’t show up, so Lexie won by default. Lexie continued to reach out with no response, so Lexie went through with the process to garnish her previous owner’s wages (because, yes, this woman is still a practicing therapist). However, after a year and a half of this battle, Lexie’s previous employer ended up filing for bankruptcy in June 2025 and gave Lexie unfortunate clarity that she will never get the money she was rightly owed. Unfortunately, the family has faced extreme financial distress from all of this. In addition to the lost wages, Lexie and Nathan have incurred hundreds of dollars in legal fees and have been struggling to keep up with the loan payments/debts they had to take on during the 8 months of no income. On top of all of this, they have had an immensely expensive year of unforeseeable events, including a severe flooding incident, which has resulted in over $25,000 of out-of-pocket expenses and left about half of their home unlivable for over 5 months.

To echo what was said at the beginning, Lexie and Nathan are some of the most joyful and optimistic people you’ll ever meet. But those close to them have seen the ups and the downs lately, and the sadness when that infectious positivity deflates. Lexie and Nathan have exhausted all options to provide for their family and regain stability. Please consider donating to the McCarthy family to help recover Lexie’s lost wages and pay incurred debts/fees from this unfortunate work situation that has caused a domino effect of financial stress on their life. Every donation, no matter the amount, is sincerely appreciated. Thank you so much!

-Sydnie & Emilie

On behalf of Nathan, Lexie, Ollie (3) & Ezra (1)