signed contract to be an employee 1 month ago, but a certification board wont let us work?

Its a fiberglass company and i am suppose to be paid 1700$ per pool and 500$ per spa, but even though i am contracted as an employee we have not even been approved to leave for work in over 1 month. I became a contracted employee December 8th. I get paid for each scheduled job and just feel lost and stressed unable to pay bills or able to get any information out of my employer or anyone else due to some gag order that's suppose to be due to a certification board and inspectors. No severance pay was issued for all the time iv been waiting to go to work. and my pay is not taxed, i am now required upon being paid to do my own taxes at the end of the year. I am paid in cash usually, but since we haven't even left for work and still don't know for sure when we can even leave, i basically have not had any income. I worked with the company before they signed a contract through the certification board to become certified in all 50 states and never had problems until now. We travel to mostly any state who requested services. I feel like some laws are either being broken or that i am owed some form of compensation for this board taking so long to get our crew to our job site. We have plenty of work but for some reason have not been able to leave. Please help. I live in Kansas but our company is now stationed in Minnesota. I signed no contract to agree to this certification thing i am just an employee now stuck in the middle.