I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I have never been personally involved in a situation like this before and want to know what I can do about it:

A good friend of mine is a food server at a Thai restaurant in Las Vegas. She is a Thai, from Thailand - not familiar with our laws and regulations. She has been working for the sole owner of this restaurant for three years. She has never been given a paycheck. She is paid in cash, $30.00 a day, six days a week, for twelve hours of work each day - sometimes more. I have found out also that some of others working in this establishment are also paid in cash in the same manner. The employees are given no medical benefits of any kind. I seriously doubt the owner even pays unemployment insurance. I know for a fact the owner is loan-sharking to some of the employees. He is also a realtor who "helped" my friend buy her new home by waiving his fee for the realty service at the time of purchase of the home. She has to pay him back when she can afford it. Meantime he is chalking up interest on this loan - and also another that is pending. I have personally confronted this owner/individual and informed him that he is in fact breaking the law, and so has my friend. He laughed it off and chose to ignore us. There are other points of interest in this matter, but I think I have said enough to start with.

I have been reading to and explaining the labor laws to my friend and she now understands that she is getting screwed royally. Reason will not work with this individual. We are going to try and reason with him again. If he laughs us off this time - what can we do about it? What is the best course of action to take?

To immediately contact the state DOL.

I think I used to eat at that place. Seriously. No joke.

You want to talk to the people with the State of Nevada who are responsible for investigating white collar crime.

Edit:

http://dps.nv.gov/ndi/index.htm These guys would love to hear about the info you've just posted. Let them know. Also, I seem to remember that there is some sort of anonymous number that you can call in Vegas to report a crime, but I can't remember what it is. You might try that.

STICK IT TO THAT GUY.

It is horrible that he takes advantage of people the way he does. One should not be able to profit from others that way.

Kathrynjo, please take note of the dates of the posts you are replying to.

Please do not respond to posts that are no longer current unless you have a QUESTION (not an additional response) relating to the original question.