STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I worked as an intern at a retail recruiting co. from march through june.  basically, i was an "intern" because they wanted cheap labor- ie. they paid me $11/hour plus $100 a referral (if someone i called got hired).  They would receive between $5000-$10,000 if that person got hired.  Since I worked part time and had similar output to a full time recruiter, though did a little less work, I would make about $200 week, plus $100 or so a referral a month, while a real recruiter would make about $3000-$4000 a month.  it was bs, basically i could have just sat on the clock after making a few phone calls each day, since i wasn't motivated to get my bonus since it was so measley.  Well, whatever, the whole time, the owner kept saying he'd pay us more.  More, he kept saying more.  Well, finally, i had it- i had placed two people, my boss said i was a superstar, so i wanted to know what more was.  Well, he told me it was $200 a person and still $11/hour.  I had asked for more hourly and more a person, and he said no.  So I said to my boss that I couldn't take the offer, he was sad, but he promised he would get me the $200 for each of my referrals.  I was owed $500- $100 for my first placement (had to be original rate), and $200 for each of the other two.  Since i wasn't on payroll anymore, i had to wait til the checks physically arrived.  Well, that was June 6 that I left.  It has been almost 4.5 months.  The checks had arrived, and the $100 girl i'm not being paid for because she got fired a couple of months into it, and the guy i recruited for was the owner's friend, so he decided to not make him pay the fee.  So i'm screwed out of it because they weren't paid.  Fine.  So i'm still owed $400 in my head- the checks (over $10,000!) have arrived.  But the owner doesn't want to pay me because I quit and he's an asshole.  He's superrich, barely there, i signed nothing that said he didn't owe me the money, and the boss promised that i would get paid.  If he keeps saying he won't pay me, what can I do?  Has anyone been to small claims court?  Would that cost more than it would be worth?  I really want my money- I earned it and its killing me that they won't keep their word when they are making so much money and i'm just a 22 year girl struggling on my own!