When you hear about theft crimes on the news, it is usually the cliché type of crime that you would expect. For instance, maybe someone robbed the bank or stole a car or broke into a home in the neighborhood. These are all various types of theft, and they do happen, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses every year.
However, some studies have looked into wage theft and determined that employers steal around $50 billion from their employees. Plus, this is an annual figure, so it is happening year after year. This makes it by far the most common and expensive type of theft in the United States. Employees all across the country have lost far more money to their own employers than to anyone breaking into their homes and taking their possessions.
Many types of wage theft
Part of the issue here is that there are many different types of wage theft. In some cases, employers and employees don’t even realize what is happening. Examples of wage theft include:
- Refusing to pay overtime wages
- Not giving service employees the tips they have earned
- Including ineligible individuals in a tip pool
- Reducing an employee’s wages without warning
- Not providing compensation for paid brakes or forcing employees to work through their breaks
Do you feel that your employer has been stealing your wages and keeping some of the money that you earned for yourself? Employees are sometimes worried about speaking up because they’re afraid that they will be fired, but it’s important to note that doing so would be a wrongful termination. Employees must know what legal rights they have as they move forward.
