Karli, thanks for the info regarding break time violations.  That's going to be a HUGE help for her pocketbook, one way or another.

Now the onus is on me to make sure she goes through with it ... :D

Employers can be fined up to $1,000 PER VIOLATION for not awarding an employee their legal breaks.  According to oregon law, an employee gets 10 minutes of paid rest time (UNINTERRUPTED, not like, 2 x 5 minutes) per every minimum of 4 hours worker.  At the 6 hour mark, an employee must take a 30 minute lunch break which is unpaid.  That's right, MUST.  And you can't tack it on to the end or a beginning of a shift or put it w/ another break.  Doesn't matter if you're salaried either. 

A typical 8 hour shift should see a 10 minute break at the 2 hour mark, a 30 minute lunch at the 4 hour mark, and another 10 minute break at the 6 hour mark.

I would definitely report her employer to BOLI for violating the breaks.  It's an easy one to report.

If she was listed as married on her W-4 form (tax), her income withholding is going to be a bit higher than it should be.  She should also keep in mind that Oregon withholds state income tax as well so a check in Washington is not going to have as much withholdings as Oregon because this is the trade-off for not having state sales tax.

It's very easy to get incorrect W-4 information fixed, though.  She should clarify when checks are issued for specific periods of time.  If I remember correctly, she started near the middle or end of July, and it's possible that money she has received so far is the cause of a delay between the close of the most recent pay period and now.  It's not quite mid-August yet so if the pay period closed at the end of July it's not completely unreasonable that she's not been paid for shifts after August 1st or so.

Lastly, it sounds to me like the vast majority of the problems occurred at the payroll level.  If $8.50 is their starting wage and no one bothered to communicate that to payroll that she was starting higher than that ($9.00), it's easy to understand why she got less than what was promised.  Also, the geniouses in payroll may have also not only goofed in entering her W-4 information (marital status) but may have screwed up some other things altogether, which could account for the discrepancies in pay.

Sounds like she needs to contact their payroll directly and request her information to be corrected, clarify the pay period, clarify what dates and hours she has been paid for currently, and fix any problems that materialize.

There were other details that I forgot to mention as well:

In the one week that Alli was able to work 30 hours, on at least one (two, if I remember correctly) occasion she was not given ANY break time - no 10-15 minute breaks and NO lunchbreak either.

As far as commuting options and what not, Alli is a bit limited.  She has culinary school starting at 3pm I believe, so ideally she wants to be done with work by 2pm so that she has time to get stuff ready for school and not be late for class.  Long commutes are not really an option.

The Starbucks idea is a solid one though, assuming she can find a shift that works for her hours.  From what I hear Starbucks does a decent job of treating its employees, and Alli certainly has the experience for a good job there.

My understanding was that Alli was told she'd be paid $9.00 an hour and have 30 hours per week.  She is looking for a new job because obviously her current one is terrible, but she has had no luck finding a better job.

Lastly, Alli told me that their work-week is something like Tuesday thru Monday.  That said, she has worked around 48-50 hours to date, and has only been paid for 8 of those hours.  It seems to me that this is not a rollover period error, this is either an error in accounting or they are simply not paying her for time worked.  They screwed up her marital status (they claim she is married) to boot.

She gives her timecard to her boss or manager, and they enter it into the system, so the onus is not on her, but on her boss.

Shi, this is definitely an area I can help out in.  These are all things that HR professionals know about, and I can also point Alli to specific laws pertaining to her situation.  I would need to know a few more details, however.

Just so I can be clear on your first statement, is alli truly not being paid for 40 hours worth of work at all or are they just not on this check?  I think it's an obvious no-no to not pay her for hours physically worked at all, but I suspect they are doing a combination of "maximizing" their work week (i.e. grouping days together so that even if you work 48 hours in a 7 day span those 7 days aren't in the same group for considering overtime).

The rest of the pieces about the not giving her the wage she was promised or giving her the hours that were promised are pretty much unfortunately not anything she can do about, unless there was something on her hiring paperwork that specified those things.  My agency has a few different documents that are filled out in the presence of a new hire when they first come on board that clarifies what their wage is, what hourly classification they are (we consider full time anything over 32 hours, everyone is different), and other things like whether they are day shift, swing shift, etc..  Of course, not everyone does that, however.

Alli works for a larger company and it's likely that if they have branches in California (which I believe they do), they should be adhering to California labor law standards, which are even stricter than Oregon's.  

My suggestion to her before she begins looking for another position (which I think would be a smart move) is to document any of the facts about her circumstance.  Date hired, how and who quoted the wage and hour commitments to her, her knowledge of their pay period (i.e. once a week, once a month, each half of the month, etc etc), and then file a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

I attend seminars that BOLI puts on for employers on a regular basis and I can tell you that people are always doing themselves a favor when they call out a bad employer.  That being said, without certain aspects of her position being put in writing when she was hired, there isn't going to be a whole lot they can do to help her.  However, it might be enough to make them think twice before they do this again to someone.

If Alli needs 30 hours a week and $9+ an hour, I gotta recommend that she actually try to get in at Starbucks as a Shift Supervisor or even in Management Training.  Both can be difficult positions to get your foot in the door, but honestly, the pay isn't *terrible*, and the environment is generally fun.  I don't miss the 4 am shifts from my years at Starbucks, but it's a good job, gets you benefits, and they are really good to their employees, even if the pay is a little low.

If you have any more specifics & details you can provide I can give you a bit more feedback.

http://www.oregon.gov/BOLI/TA/T_FAQ_Tafaq.shtml

this is the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry FAQ sheet that should be able to answer some of those questions.  Also, the Better Business Bureau could likely answer some of these questions. 

here is another link:

http://labor-employment-law.lawyers.com/

and US department of Labor:

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/