They have full control over rates, fees, locations, services, etc. etc. And the government is not doing nearly enough to protect consumers. Loan sharking is illegal, retail banking isn't. It's like marijuana and tobacco. One has a lobby, one doesn't. People are using credit less <link> so banks have to make it up elsewhere and OD fees are a good place to start in a recession when people are losing jobs willy-nilly.

people deserve the option of being paid cash by their employer.

Do you mean "cash", as in 'pieces of paper with green drawings on them', or "cash", as in 'off the records and nobody withholding any taxes from them'?

Most companies refuse to pay cash in the first sense simply because they understand what a payday robbery is: an efficient way of turning a hundred workers' earnings into the illegally obtained property of one immoral thief, while simultaneously putting the company in violation of payroll laws (because when the thief walks off with the cash box, workers can't be paid on time).

In the US, there are an enormous number of banks that allow free checking accounts with free direct-from-employer payroll deposit options. Once it's deposited, there's nothing to prevent you from withdrawing that money from your free checking account, whenever you want, and living on a cash-only basis from there. Just because the bank gives you a checkbook and a debit card doesn't mean that you actually have to write checks or swipe your card.