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My comment was pure anecdote from years spent in retail (Best Buy) and co-owning a pizza restaurant. I'll update it if it helps. A quick google finds a number

My comment was pure anecdote from years spent in retail (Best Buy) and co-owning a pizza restaurant. I'll update it if it helps. A quick google finds a number of stats referencing what I'm talking about, but probably nothing scientific. Here is an example: https://losspreventionmedia.com/theft-by-employees-more-common-than-theft-by-customers/ https://losspreventionmedia.com/theft-by-employees-more-comm... Reliable help in "low skill" jobs (although I don't believe they are low skill) can be notoriously hard to find.

ianjsikes 6y ago
And yet wage theft (by employers) seems to be the largest form of theft in the US by far. Is it really a wonder that people would steal / slack off when they are so consistently getting screwed at their workplace? https://www.nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BrokenLawsReport2009.pdf?nocdn=1 https://www.nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BrokenLawsRe... https://www.deseret.com/2014/6/24/20543670/wage-theft-how-employers-steal-millions-from-american-workers-every-week https://www.deseret.com/2014/6/24/20543670/wage-theft-how-em...
- supergeek133 6y ago
  Yep, the most egregious daily example is Wal-Mart and basically showing their employees how to apply for welfare versus paying them a livable wage. Corporate welfare at its best. But how does an individual combat that? I personally just don't shop at Wal-Mart...
  - Aunche 6y ago
    Wal-mart already pays well above the minimum wage. By your logic, they're actually saving the government billions of dollars in welfare that the government would have to pay to take care of their own citizens.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    Walmart advising employees to receive benefits they are lawfully eligible for is not theft.
    - logfromblammo 6y ago
      Neither is downloading a car, and yet, we have a highly patronizing video prepended to a lot of home video releases that disingenuously equates copyright infringement to theft. Intentionally paying an employee less than a living wage, with the expectation that someone else will be charitable enough to make up the shortfall, is indeed not theft, but it is unethical. There is a popular movement to make that behavior illegal, via reforms to employment law. The obvious impediment here is that poor employees have little lobbying/campaign cash, as compared with the mega-corporations that underpay their laborers. So I feel confident that "Fight for $15" and similar movements will fail without more unionization.
      - stale2002 6y ago
        What? Feel free to disagree with copywrite law, or whatever. But at the end of the day, I don't see anything wrong with helping workers take advantage of benefits that they are legally entitled to.
        logfromblammo 6y ago
        There's also nothing wrong with a man who rides a horse to the point of injury calling in a large-animal veterinarian to treat it, a vet whose services are paid by someone else. But there is some question as to whether the availability of treatment allows the man to ride the horses harder, with less regard for their welfare, than would otherwise be possible. Metaphorically, the vet should refuse to treat injuries brought on by recklessness or cruelty, unless the person responsible pays. Unwinding the metaphor, Wal-Mart should be forced to pay the cost of entitlement programs to the extent that its employment practices make administering those programs to its workers more necessary. There are many ways that goal may be approached. It's not "theft" by any definition of the word, but when the situation is described to the modal individual, they are likely to say "they're stealing from the welfare system!"
  - supergeek133 6y ago
    Call it whatever you like, they're using it as a crutch to pay their employees as little as possible.
- azinman2 6y ago
  Both can be true at the same time

ianjsikes 6y ago

And yet wage theft (by employers) seems to be the largest form of theft in the US by far. Is it really a wonder that people would steal / slack off when they are so consistently getting screwed at their workplace? https://www.nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BrokenLawsReport2009.pdf?nocdn=1 https://www.nelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BrokenLawsRe... https://www.deseret.com/2014/6/24/20543670/wage-theft-how-employers-steal-millions-from-american-workers-every-week https://www.deseret.com/2014/6/24/20543670/wage-theft-how-em...

supergeek133 6y ago
Yep, the most egregious daily example is Wal-Mart and basically showing their employees how to apply for welfare versus paying them a livable wage. Corporate welfare at its best. But how does an individual combat that? I personally just don't shop at Wal-Mart...
- Aunche 6y ago
  Wal-mart already pays well above the minimum wage. By your logic, they're actually saving the government billions of dollars in welfare that the government would have to pay to take care of their own citizens.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Walmart advising employees to receive benefits they are lawfully eligible for is not theft.
  - logfromblammo 6y ago
    Neither is downloading a car, and yet, we have a highly patronizing video prepended to a lot of home video releases that disingenuously equates copyright infringement to theft. Intentionally paying an employee less than a living wage, with the expectation that someone else will be charitable enough to make up the shortfall, is indeed not theft, but it is unethical. There is a popular movement to make that behavior illegal, via reforms to employment law. The obvious impediment here is that poor employees have little lobbying/campaign cash, as compared with the mega-corporations that underpay their laborers. So I feel confident that "Fight for $15" and similar movements will fail without more unionization.
    - stale2002 6y ago
      What? Feel free to disagree with copywrite law, or whatever. But at the end of the day, I don't see anything wrong with helping workers take advantage of benefits that they are legally entitled to.
      - logfromblammo 6y ago
        There's also nothing wrong with a man who rides a horse to the point of injury calling in a large-animal veterinarian to treat it, a vet whose services are paid by someone else. But there is some question as to whether the availability of treatment allows the man to ride the horses harder, with less regard for their welfare, than would otherwise be possible. Metaphorically, the vet should refuse to treat injuries brought on by recklessness or cruelty, unless the person responsible pays. Unwinding the metaphor, Wal-Mart should be forced to pay the cost of entitlement programs to the extent that its employment practices make administering those programs to its workers more necessary. There are many ways that goal may be approached. It's not "theft" by any definition of the word, but when the situation is described to the modal individual, they are likely to say "they're stealing from the welfare system!"
- supergeek133 6y ago
  Call it whatever you like, they're using it as a crutch to pay their employees as little as possible.
azinman2 6y ago
Both can be true at the same time