Employer refuses to correct payroll error from 2002

I have been trying for over a year to get my employer - a consulting company - to pay me for a payroll "error" that occurred in April 2002.

The "error" (erroneous interpretation of a change in compensation policy) was to the company's benefit - they short-paid all consultants by 30% for the last 10 days of April 2002.

Despite numerous discussions with my practice manager and our HR department (who eventually agreed that an error had occurred, but said they couldn't correct it without senior management authorization), nothing has been done to rectify the error. Senior management are fully aware of the problem - my practice manager has had numerous discussions with them in this regard - but they continue to do nothing, citing cash flow problems (which now no longer exist because our company was recently acquired by a cash-rich organization).

I'm not sure in what state this issue would fall, legally. I live in MA, and when I joined the company 6 years ago, HQ was in MA. There is still an office in MA, although HQ moved to GA in March 2002. And our new owners are based in PA...

According to what I have read re: MA law, I am most certainly entitled to this payment, with damages (2X or 3X) too, and I could file a claim in small claims court (claim amount less than $2000) without hiring a lawyer.

I don't particularly want to take legal action on this, but I would like to know where I stand, and what penalties my employer faces should I file a claim for unpaid wages, so that I could posibbly use this information as leverage to get them to correct their error.

Would appreciate your advice on this!
Many thanks in advance