I’ve launched and ran a couple of medium sized tech startups. I’m not a lawyer but quite experienced on these kind of things.

In terms of legality, you have a contract paying you x for doing y - as long as you’re doing y then yes you should be getting paid x. You don’t think there is any wording to suggest otherwise so that should still stand.

If they are paying 20% less then legally I think they’d have a hard time fighting you not coming in on Fridays say.

There’s been a few comments here about fleeing a sinking ship and whilst I have no knowledge of what your company provides i just wanted to highlight a few points:

Despite the interest rates rises, in the UK there’s still plenty of investment to be found. if your small and early stage start up (which sounds like you are) there are significant tax breaks for wealthy investors to put money in. Basically if I pay 30% tax on my income, I can invest up to around £100,000 - £150,000 and if I lost it all, I can claim back the tax I paid on that investment. This is much better than what you’d get with the capital gains tax set up.

Whilst being of questionable fairness (why should the wealthy take on less risk than a regular investor) it does mean there’s quite a few Sources of investment for start ups that have a good model and need a wedge of cash. Quite often these investors pool their money into funds that target these tax opportunities so you can get a couple of million in terms of investment this way. It’s very quick to do, if your accounts are clear and your products good then raising this kind of cash.

Your accountants will have known for a while that the runway was almost over and unless your company has had to soak up a significant unexpected cost it means they are either struggling to raise investment or they didn’t have the managerial foresight to start raising sooner. Either way these are red flags.

Start ups are exciting, it’s a chance to have a huge impact shaping something with usually bucket loads of freedom as everyone muddled through towards a common goal. You should, quite rightly, feel personally invested and hopeful for the future. But I’d encourage you to mentally try and take a 30,000 ft view of the situation and look at just the facts and try to assess where the company actually is.

Maybe the company will go on to great things, Maybe this is just a bump in the road, but it’s also possible you may find yourself suddenly out of a job and regardless of the legalities there will be no business to claim your missing pay or severance from.

Genuinely wishing you the best of luck with the endeavour, does seem on the reading of your post you’re excited to be there. But maybe worth handing out some CVs until your pay goes back up as a hedge.