Theft is different in the sense that you don't willingly engage in a transaction at all. Wage "theft" is not usually theft; it's one party not fulfilling their

Theft is different in the sense that you don't willingly engage in a transaction at all. Wage "theft" is not usually theft; it's one party not fulfilling their obligations. In practice not paying someone for work already done is really bad, so we should (and do, to varying degrees) have laws to try to protect workers.