An Epidemic of Wage Theft Is Costing Workers Hundreds of Millions a Year (2014)
> This failure to pay what workers are legally entitled to can be called wage theft; in essence, it involves employers taking money that belongs to their employees and keeping it for themselves.<p>Shouldn't it be called fraud rather than theft? I thought theft is depriving someone of something they own... but you don't own the money yet before the payment is made. My understanding was, if you intended to pay a debt, but later refuse to, then you pay it back with some interest (or none, depending on the agreement) and it doesn't qualify as theft. And if you didn't intend to pay it when you acquired the debt, it's fraud... still not theft.<p>The semantics really matter, I think. And I think it might be a great example of why we should really not muddy discussions of crimes (or other things for that matter, I guess). If you insist on treating unpaid debts as theft, and you get exactly what you asked for, you're probably not going to like the outcome. You don't own your employer's money until it's paid to you, just like how a credit card company doesn't own your money until you make your bill payment. Otherwise everyone who declines to make a payment on their credit card bill would also be a thief.