I was an hourly employee. I would take my paycheck to the issuing bank and cash it there. There came a time where the bank wouldn’t cash it as there wasn’t enough funds to cover the check. I would take the check back to the employer.
The employer would give me some cash, and write another check for the difference.
Rinse and repeat.
I never had any NSF charges, as I never deposited them into my bank account.
Do everything earlier suggested. You could sue in small claims, but if there’s no money to go after, well, as the saying goes, you can’t get blood from a stone. In Ohio, if you win in small claims and the defendant fails or refuses to pay, you can garnish his wages (assuming he’s working somewhere else by then), attach any bank account he has, or place a lien on his property. If it’s a corporation or a limited liability corporation, it gets complicated, and you may want to consult with a Washington State lawyer.
Do you have till taps in your neck of the woods? I don’t think it looks very good for merchants to have a sheriff’s deputy taking cash from every sale and the public shaming can be a good motivator, but of course it assumes there is a till and it has money to be tapped…
The bit about being paid in cash is interesting. Do you have any kind of documentation of hours worked times hourly pay, and taxes withheld on same?
If so, do NOT lose that - it’s your proof to the taxing authorities that you had income tax withheld. I rather strongly suspect this employer hasn’t been remitting those taxes to the government.
There are forms you can fill out to document this - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4852.pdf is a substitute W2 which you use if you haven’t received one or you believe yours is wrong.
Basically, you want to cover your ass in case the IRS tries to accuse you of misbehavior.
