[fintstone]

Lots of small business people/franchisees take that risk. I know of folks who run national chain stores and restaurants that have "private contractors" who come in an clean their carpets and grill hoods at night, mow their grass, pressure wash their building and sidewalks and unload their trucks. Clean their windows. These things used to be done by minimum wage employees...but it is much cheaper to contract out to someone who hires illegals. The same businesses also hire small, private firms to fix their plumbing, unload their trucks, etc. That doesn't even count the folks who work in the fields to grow and pick produce, those who work on meat packing plants, etc.

I used to go to a Waffle House that I found out that two of the employees on the night shift were paid in cash. Their books showed another employee worked those hours at a much higher rate. That employee got to keep a portion of the money whenever the cash employee worked. Most serving employees made about $4 per hour plus tips. Cooks made min wage...about $7hr. One employee was paid $12hr on the books and had some sort of assistant mgr title to make it seem legit. He also cooked and kept $9hr (of the $12) and when both he and the cash employee worked the same hours (first 6 hrs of the shift) and all $12hr the last 2-4 hours of the shift. For the 6 hrs per night that they both worked, the cash employee got free meals...one at the start and one at the end of the shift as well as $3hr (of the $12) in cash with no taxes or deductions for him or the franchise. The other employees did not know the deal and assumed the cash employee made what they did. Franchise knew, but if caught, would have pretended not to and let the asst mgr take the blame. They saved about $1 per hour for each of the min wage employees (cooks).