[cynwoody]

Baskin-Robbins is a franchise operation, and there is no way he was paid in cash.

One does not follow from the other. Franchisees are independent businesses. Baskin-Robbins would not be involved in the payroll operations of its franchisee.

If a franchisee were getting slews of do-not-match letters from the SSA, if it was paying its employees under the table, Baskin-Robbins would not be the one to catch them. Although, they would certainly notice after the fact, if, say, a franchisee got hit with an I-9 audit from ICE and ended up in the news for having to fire half its employees, as happened to Chipotle in Minnesota recently.

[Beckwith]

Baskin-Robbins would not be involved in the payroll operations of its franchisee.

Perhaps, but the franchiser watches the books like an eagle.

I've consulted to a bunch of them and they really control the franchise environment, most often having the franchisee use their corporate software systems

For example, just ask any McDonalds employee for an extra cup -- you won't get it -- McDonalds even controls on the paper cups.

It just wouldn't be in the franchisee's interest to pay a kid under the table.