If you ask people about common types of theft in America, they’re likely to mention something like home robberies or car theft. They may talk about armed robberies at convenience stores or restaurants. They could talk about mugging or other types of personal robbery.
All these things do happen, but none of them hold a candle to wage theft. Reports show that wage theft accounts for $482 million. This is over 100 times the value of assets taken in robberies, and it outnumbers all other types of theft. If you are an American and you’re worried about someone stealing from you, it is statistically most likely that the entity to perpetrate that theft is your own employer.
How does wage theft occur?
Part of the reason that wage theft is so problematic is that it can happen in a variety of different ways. Some examples include:
- Failing to pay for overtime hours
- Paying workers their standard rate instead of overtime wages
- Managers or business owners taking a portion of tips left directly for employees
- Failing to pay out commissions or bonuses
- Altering timesheets to make it appear that workers logged fewer hours than they actually did
- Reducing pay for illegal reasons, such as discrimination or retaliation
- Failing to pay workers properly for meal breaks or rest breaks
In some cases, workers don’t even realize that it happened. For instance, a worker may be offered comp time instead of overtime pay, but they are given one hour off for each hour of overtime when they really deserve 1.5 hours off.
If you believe that wage theft has happened to you, it is critical that you know what legal steps to take to protect your rights.