There's no good way around the liquidating trustee's cut that doesn't involve replacing the trustee in bankruptcy with a government employee, but Congress expre

There's no good way around the liquidating trustee's cut that doesn't involve replacing the trustee in bankruptcy with a government employee, but Congress expressed its preference to outsource this function to private entities and that's what we have Unfortunately, federal bankruptcy law puts workers far down the list of who gets paid, after business creditors and legal fees for the bankruptcy itself This is mostly correct but wrong enough to deserve a bit of elaboration and a link. The Bankruptcy Code treats a small portion of ordinary wages as priority debts that get paid ahead of some other unsecured creditors including unsecured business creditors, but always after administrative expenses, and it's not a lot of money. For the entire list of people who get paid before employees as well as the priority amount see https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/507 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/11/507 section (A)(4)