Haa I saw that and thought the same thing. 😆 It's definitely greed and injustice, but "wage theft" is something different.

Hahahahaha normally I'm Not Thrilled about super pedantic takes but I had the same thought In this case it's like...ok yeah it's actually much much worse than that, this incorrect definition is Less Bad than the actual thing that is that term? They just? Owe you but dont pay 👏 Who made this??

Wage theft has nothing to do with the difference between record-breaking profits and low wages. Wage theft is deliberately not paying your people at all, making excuses for why they didn't get paid, or making them work for 40 hours in a week but only paying them for 20 hours.

On the flip side, time theft is almost always done by the employees and the most obvious examples are employees taking more breaks than they are allowed, taking longer breaks than they are scheduled, or clocking in then hiding somewhere and not doing anything at all.

In most jobs, full-time employees are given two 10 minute breaks and a 20 minute lunch at minimum. Some companies give employees two 15 minute breaks and a half hour for lunch. It becomes time theft when employees take longer than 15 minutes on break or spend more than five minutes in the restroom.

Smokers are the ones most likely to commit time theft because they take more than the allotted amount and time of breaks to smoke.

When I am paying you for 8 hours of work, I am expecting you to be working for all 8 hours. When I am generous enough to offer two 15 minute breaks and a half hour for lunch (in a state where I am not legally obligated to provide any breaks at all), I expect you to only take 15 minutes on each break

If you abuse my generosity by taking more than 15 minutes for each break and not coming back from your lunch break on time, you should not be surprised if I don't pay you for the extra time you were on break or lunch.

If you spend 10 minutes in the restroom every hour, you shouldn't be surprised when you only get paid for 6.5 hours of work, because that's 80 minutes you stole from my company over the course of an 8 hour shift. Why should I pay you to sit in the restroom on your phone for 10 minutes every hour?

If your co-workers complain about your smoking addiction giving you the "privilege" of more and longer breaks, then I have to write you up because it's not fair to those who don't smoke that you get more and longer breaks just because you smoke.

I see you have had arguments over these things. 😅 But yes, I agree with that (except to note that breaks and hours vary). Wage theft is a violation of contract terms, not the contract itself being unfair.