system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does wage theft happen?

I keep seeing posts about how it is much larger than "normal" theft but how do companies get away with it? Are they paying the wrong rate or undercounting hours? Do workers not check how much they are paid? How do you avoid it happening to you?
gpt
A lot of it is done under the guise of solidarity and helping your workmates. "it'd be really great for the team if you could just go help them do this even though you're off the clock"

It's the ways in which an employer will convince you to work without being paid, and it usually comes with a guilt trip that makes you feel as though you should do it to help.

Employers also use the reverse tactic of making you feel guilty for time theft, where you do non-work related things on the clock. If they can convince you that you're guilty of something like spending a few minutes talking to a work friend, that's time theft. But if you spent the same few minutes taking to a client about the same exact thing, that's not because there is potential profit involved for the company.