What can my wife do about her employer never paying her on time?

My wife has been working for this employer now for about 4 months and when she started everything was okay, her second paycheck was a day late, but we overlooked it, then all of a sudden right after the holidays every pay check she has gotten suddenly can't be cashed until 3-4 days past her payday b/c her employer (who runs one of the most popular florist shops in town they bought it from the former owners not long ago) says the funds aren't in the account to cover the check yet. So, my wife has to wait. In reality, her employer writes her what are bad checks and essentially tells her to wait until the are good so she can cash them. I've had her ask why, knowing when payday is, she doesn't have the money just ready in the account by payday, but her bosses answer is always something having to wait for funds to clear or something, never a satisfactory answer. My wife has told me too, that her boss just doesn't flat out care whether she gets paid on time or not and has acted like it's silly she complains about it, almost like it's weird to get paid on time or something, yet has no problem having my wife work all these additional hours she never asked for but feels forced to work. My wife is looking for another job, but jobs are scarce right now, so she has to play nice with this employer. Problem is now this waiting for her current check to clear is costing us late fees on our bills, b/c we budgeted our money according to paydays. Now we're late on two bills b/c her boss still has not paid her on time...hopefully today. I'm leaving to go Active in the Army here next month, this is such a stupid headache to have with everything else going on preparing for that. Is there something that can be done to maybe help her get paid on time, something that could be brought to her employer's attention regarding a "payday policy" or something?