Dear Prudence,
After six months of searching and working in a restaurant, my sister finally got her first real postcollege job. Two weeks after she started, her boss informed her that their department didn’t actually have the budget to pay her and asked if she would work as an unpaid intern while doing the same things they hired her for. I think she should quit, but the job search was so emotionally draining for her that she is considering staying on and hoping they start paying her. She lives on my couch and was planning to move out after her first paycheck, but now she is going to have to stay longer. What legal recourse might she have? Neither of us have much money, and our parents are dealing with medical issues, so we don’t want to go to them. What should we do?
—Employer Won’t Pay Her