There are many ways to receive payments from an employer. Your employer can cut you a check, deposit money directly into your account with your permission, or hand you an envelope filled with cash.
Getting paid in cash is legal ONLY IF your employer complies with employment laws and provides you a paystub. The paystub must contain specific information including the name of your employer, your hourly rate of pay, how many hours you worked during that pay period, and the amount of each payroll deduction. These laws exist to protect employees from wage theft by employers. Employees must be able to see from the paystub exactly how their wages were calculated, and what deductions and taxes were taken out.
What does it mean to pay employees under the table?
Paying employees in cash, under the table, means that the employer does not report their employees or take deductions out of paychecks. Unless your employer is issuing you a paystub with your cash payments, your employer is not following the law.
Paystubs
Maintaining precise records is complicated when paying with cash. There are no automatic records verifying the amount of money that has been received by the employee.
To avoid a lack of payment records, you should be provided a paystub as proof of payment. Paystub information should show total gross wages (pay before deductions), deductions, and net pay (take-home pay).