The Sins of Wages: Wage Theft in the United States

Abstract

Wage theft, or the withholding of wages from workers who are rightfully owed remuneration, has gone relatively unexamined by criminologists, even those who study white-collar and corporate crime. This study draws on available data on corporate crime—and wage theft specifically—to estimate the likelihood of publicly traded U.S. firms engaging in wage theft. I test several hypotheses drawn from theoretical perspectives on corporate crime using a sample of publicly traded U.S. firms—848 sanctioned for wage theft and a comparison group of 1,334 non-wage theft firms—to determine firm characteristics that are predictive of firms’ engagement in wage theft. Results reveal that larger firms and those operating in industries previously identified as problematic for worker exploitation are more likely to have been sanctioned for wage theft. I discuss the implications and limitations of the study, as well as offer suggestions for further criminological inquiry into the problem.

Keywords

wage theft wage fraud wage and hour violations corporate crime

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agnew

Piquero

N. L.

Cullen

F. T.

(2009). General Strain Theory and White-Collar Crime. In Simpson

S. S.

Weisburd

(Eds.), The Criminology of White-Collar Crime (pp. 35–60). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09502-8_3

Alms

(2021). Labor department seeks funding for staffing surges. FCW. https://fcw.com/workforce/2021/07/labor-department-seeks-funding-for-staffing-surges/258448/

Amengual

Bartley

(2022). Global markets, corporate assurances, and the legitimacy of state intervention: Perceptions of distant labor and environmental problems. American Sociological Review, 87(3), 383–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224221092340

Anderson

(2026). America’s 20 largest low-wage employers and the affordability crisis. Institute for Policy Studies. https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Low-Wage-20-Report-3-4-final.pdf

Anner

(2020). Abandoned? The impact of Covid-19 on workers and businesses at the bottom of global garment supply chains. Penn State Center for Global Workers’ Rights. https://workersrights.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Abandoned-Penn-State-WRC-Report-March-27-2020.pdf

Barak

(2012). Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding. Rowman & Littlefield.

Barrett

K. L.

Lynch

M. J.

Long

M. A.

Stretesky

P. B.

(2018). Monetary penalties and noncompliance with environmental laws: A mediation analysis. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 43(3), 530–550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-017-9428-0

Bauer

(2009). Under siege: Life for low-income latinos in the south. Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/d6_legacy_files/downloads/UnderSiege.pdf

Benson

M. L.

Simpson

S. S.

Rorie

M. L.

Kennedy

J. P.

(2024). White-collar crime: An opportunity perspective (4th ed.). Routledge.

10.

Bernhardt

Milkman

Theodore

, & et al. (2009). Broken laws, unprotected workers: Violations of employment and labor laws in American cities. National Employment Law Project. https://www.nelp.org/publication/broken-laws-unprotected-workers-violations-of-employment-and-labor-laws-in-americas-cities/#:∼:text=Thisreportexposesa0world,toadvocateforbetterworking

11.

Bernhardt

Spiller

M. W.

Polson

(2013). All work and no pay: Violations of employment and labor laws in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York city. Social Forces, 91(3), 725–746. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sos193

12.

Bittle

Snider

(2019). How employers steal from employees. Social Justice, 45(2/3), 119–146.

13.

Blanc

(2025). We are the union: How Worker-to-Worker organizing is revitalizing labor and winning big. University of California Press.

14.

Bobo

K. A.

(2011). Wage theft in America: Why millions of working Americans are not getting paid--and what we can do about it. New Press.

15.

Bureau of Labor Statistics . (2025). Employer costs for employee compensation—march 2025. (USDL-25-0958). https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf

16.

Chambliss

W. J.

(1974). The state, the law, and the definition of behavior as criminal or delinquent: Handbook of criminology (pp. 7–43). Houghton Mifflin.

17.

Chan

Gibbs

(2022). When guardians become offenders: Understanding guardian capability through the lens of corporate crime. Criminology, 60(2), 321–341. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12300

18.

Chircop

Cumming

D. J.

Tarsalewska

Trzeciakiewicz

(2023). Does political risk influence wage theft? [Working paper No. 938/2023]. ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4551843

19.

Chircop

Tarsalewska

Trzeciakiewicz

(2021). Government procurement and wage theft. (Available at SSRN). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3916088

20.

Chircop

Tarsalewska

Trzeciakiewicz

(2026). “Government Contracting and Wage Compliance.” Corporate Governance: An International Review, 0, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.70035.

21.

Clinard

M. B.

Yeager

P. C.

(1980). Corporate crime. Transaction Publishers.

22.

Cohen

Gurun

Ozel

N. B.

(2023). Too many managers: The strategic use of titles to avoid overtime payments. NBER Working Paper No. 30826. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30826/w30826.pdf

23.

Cooper

Kroeger

(2017). Employers steal billions from workers’ paychecks each year. Economic Policy Institute. https://files.epi.org/pdf/125116.pdf

24.

Cox

N. J.

(2011). Stata tip 96: Cube roots. The Stata Journal, 11(1), 149–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867x1101100112

25.

Cressey

D. R.

(1973). Other People’s Money: A Study in the Social Psychology of Embezzlement (Reprint ed.). Paterson Smith.

26.

Davies

(2017). The limits of neoliberalism: Authority, sovereignty and the logic of competition. Sage.

27.

Erlich

(2023). The way we build: Restoring dignity to construction work. University of Illinois Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uncw/detail.action?docID=30499428

28.

Farzamfar

Foroughi

(2022). The hidden cost of going green: Evidence from firm-level violations. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4081186

29.

Fussell

(2011). The deportation threat dynamic and victimization of Latino migrants: Wage theft and robbery. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(4), 593–615. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2011.01221.x

30.

Fuster

(2024). Disneyland reaches California record $233 million wage theft settlement with workers. TheWrap. https://www.thewrap.com/disneyland-california-record-wage-theft-settlement/

31.

Galemba

R. B.

(2021). “They steal our work”: Wage theft and the criminalization of immigrant day laborers in Colorado, USA. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 27(1), 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-020-09474-z

32.

Galvin

D. J.

(2016). Deterring Wage Theft: Alt-Labor, State Politics, and the Policy Determinants of Minimum Wage Compliance. Perspectives on Politics, 14(2), 324–350. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592716000050

33.

Gleeson

(2016). Precarious claims: The promise and failure of workplace protections in the United States. University of California Press. https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook.php?isbn=9780520963603

34.

Gobert

(2008). The evolving legal test of corporate criminal liability. In Minkes

Minkes

(Eds.), Corporate and white-collar crime (pp. 61–80). Sage.

35.

Gottschalk

(2017). Convenience in white-collar crime: Introducing a core concept. Deviant Behavior, 38(5), 605–619. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2016.1197585

36.

Green

(2021). Wage theft as a legal concept. In Criminality at work (pp. 134–150). Oxford University Press.

37.

Greenman

Zupancic

Davis

Healy

(2023). Penalties for fraud in the pharmaceutical industry: A financial and reputational analysis. Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.60154/jaepp.2023.v24n1p21

38.

Gross

(1978). Organizational crime: A theoretical perspective. In Denzin

(Ed.), Studies in symbolic interaction (pp. 55–85). JAI Press.

39.

Hallett

(2018). The problem of wage theft. Yale Law & Policy Review, 37(1), 93–152.

40.

Hardy

Howe

Kennedy

(2022). Criminal Liability for ‘Wage Theft’: A Regulatory Panacea? Monash University Law Review, 47(1), 174–208. https://doi.org/10.26180/20364231.v1

41.

Homer

E. M.

Maume

M. O.

(2024). The deterrent effect of federal corporate prosecution agreements: An exploratory analysis. Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 5(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631309X221120003

42.

Jamieson

(2023). Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders hammer kroger over wage theft allegations. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-bernie-sanders-kroger-wage-theft_n_63ed52c0e4b022eb3e346962

43.

Jamieson

K. M.

(1994). The organization of corporate crime: Dynamics of antitrust violation. Sage.

44.

Jewett

(2023). Wells Fargo, Walmart, other companies face recent wage-and-hour class action lawsuits. Top Class Actions. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/employment-labor/wells-fargo-walmart-other-companies-face-recent-wage-and-hour-class-action-lawsuits/

45.

Johnson

M. S.

(2020). Regulation by shaming: Deterrence effects of publicizing violations of workplace safety and health laws. American Economic Review, 110(6), 1866–1904. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20180501

46.

Kalleberg

A. L.

(2009). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400101

47.

Kalleberg

A. L.

(2011). Good jobs, bad jobs: The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s. Russell Sage Foundation.

48.

Kennedy

J. P.

(2019). Organizational and macro‐level corporate crime theories. In Rorie

M. L.

(Ed.), The handbook of white‐collar crime (1st ed., pp. 175–190). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118775004.ch12

49.

Kim

J. J.

(2021). Violations of the U.S. minimum wage laws: A method of wage theft. Journal of Economic Issues, 55(4), 977–998. https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2021.1982346

50.

Kim

J. J.

(2022). Employers’ violations of the wage and hour rules of the FLSA: Knowledge gaps and data needs. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12367.15524

51.

Koenig

(2018). Economic inequality and the violation economy. Poverty & Public Policy, 10(4), 505–523. https://doi.org/10.1002/pop4.235

52.

LaFree

(2022). In the shadow of 9/11: How the study of political extremism has reshaped criminology. Criminology, 60(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12299

53.

Lee

J. J.

Smith

(2019). Regulating wage theft. Washington Law Review, 94(2), 759–822. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol94/iss2/6

54.

Leighton

(2018). No criminology of wage theft: Revisiting “workplace theft” to expose capitalist exploitation. In Revisiting Crimes of the powerful: Marxism, crime and deviance (pp. 188–201). Routledge.

55.

Levine

(2018). Behind the minimum wage fight, a sweeping failure to enforce the law. Politico. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/18/minimum-wage-not-enforced-investigation-409644

56.

Lord

Levi

(2025). Organising white-collar and corporate crimes. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315100227

57.

Lynch

M. J.

Mora

D. O.

(2023). Wrong side of the track: Crimes in the railroad industry in the US, 2000–2017. Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 6(1), 2631309X231203707. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631309X231203707

58.

Lyu

Shan

Tang

D. Y.

(2021). Corporate finance and firm pollution. (Available at SSRN). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3805629

59.

Mangundayao

McNicholas

Poydock

Sait

(2021). More than $3 billion in stolen wages recovered for workers between 2017 and 2020. Economic Policy Institute. https://files.epi.org/uploads/240542.pdf

60.

Marinescu

Qiu

Sojourner

(2021). Wage inequality and labor rights violations. NBER Working Paper No. 28475. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28475/w28475.pdf

61.

Mattera

(2018). Grand theft paycheck: The large corporations shortchanging their workers’ wages. Good Jobs First.

62.

Meixell

Eisenbrey

(2014). An epidemic of wage theft is costing workers hundreds of millions of dollars a year (issue brief #385). Economic Policy Institute. https://files.epi.org/2014/wage-theft.pdf

63.

Michalowski

R. J.

(1985). Order, law, and crime: An introduction to criminology. Random House.

64.

Migrant Forum in Asia . (2020). Appeal 5: Measures for addressing wage theft affecting millions of migrant workers in the times of COVID-19 | migrant forum in Asia. https://mfasia.org/appeal-5-measures-for-addressing-wage-theft-affecting-millions-of-migrant-workers-in-the-times-of-covid-19/

65.

NBC New York . (2023). Manhattan DA unveils new unit to combat wage theft, protect NYC workers. NBC. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/manhattan-da-unveils-new-unit-to-combat-wage-theft-protect-nyc-workers/4108194/

66.

Negi

N. J.

Siegel

Calderon

Thomas

Valdez

(2020). “They Dumped Me Like Trash”: The Social and Psychological Toll of Victimization on Latino Day Laborers’ lives. American Journal of Community Psychology, 65(3–4), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12406

67.

Office of the New York State Attorney General . (2023). Attorney general james secures $328 million from uber and lyft for taking earnings from drivers. https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2023/attorney-general-james-secures-328-million-uber-and-lyft-taking-earnings-drivers

68.

Petrescu-Prahova

Spiller

M. W.

(2016). Women’s wage theft: Explaining gender differences in violations of wage and hour laws. Work and Occupations, 43(4), 371–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888416661019

69.

Plankey-Videla

Cisneros Franco

C. L.

(2022). “lots of time they don’t pay”: Understanding wage-theft and resistance in Bryan, Texas through critical community-engaged research. Social Sciences, 11(3), 102. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11030102

70.

Prechel

(2021). Normalized Financial Wrongdoing: How Re-regulating Markets Created Risks and Fostered Inequality. Stanford University Press.

71.

Prechel

Morris

(2010). The effects of organizational and political embeddedness on financial malfeasance in the largest U.S. corporations: Dependence, incentives, and opportunities. American Sociological Review, 75(3), 331–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410372229

72.

Raghunandan

(2021). Financial misconduct and employee mistreatment: Evidence from wage theft. Review of Accounting Studies, 26(3), 867–905. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-021-09602-y

73.

Robinson

(2024). Food crime: An introduction to deviance in the food industry. Routledge.

74.

Robinson

Murphy

(2009). Greed is Good: Maximization and Elite Deviance in America. Rowman & Littlefield.

75.

Rosado Marzán

C. F.

(2020). Wage theft as crime: An institutional view. Journal of Law in Society, 20(2), 300–314.

76.

Schell-Busey

Simpson

S. S.

Rorie

Alper

(2016). What Works? A Systematic Review of Corporate Crime Deterrence Schell-Busey et al. Corporate Crime Deterrence. Criminology & Public Policy, 15(2), 387–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12195

77.

Schneiders

(2022). Hard labour: Wage theft in the age of inequality. Scribe Publications.

78.

Schwartz

Steffensmeier

Moser

W. J.

Beltz

(2022). Financial prominence and financial conditions: Risk factors for 21st century corporate financial securities fraud in the United States. Justice Quarterly, 39(3), 612–641. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2020.1853799

79.

Shichor

(2017). Adopting a white-collar crime theoretical framework for the analysis of terrorism: An explorational undertaking. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 33(3), 254–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986217699314

80.

Shover

Bryant

K. M.

(1993). Theoretical explanations of corporate crime. In Blankenship

M. B.

(Ed.), Understanding corporate criminality (pp. 141–176). Garland.

81.

Simpson

S. S.

Koper

C. S.

(1997). The changing of the guard: Top management characteristics, organizational strain, and antitrust offending. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 13(4), 373–404. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02221047

82.

Soltes

(2019). The frequency of corporate misconduct: Public enforcement versus private reality. Journal of Financial Crime, 26(4), 923–937. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-10-2018-0107

83.

Sung

H.-E.

Delgado

Peña

Paladino

(2013). Tyrannizing strangers for profit: Wage theft, cross-border migrant workers, and the politics of exclusion in an era of global economic integration. In Brotherton

D. C.

Stageman

D. L.

Leyro

S. P.

(Eds.), Outside justice: Immigration and the criminalizing impact of changing policy and practice (pp. 247–267): Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6648-2_13

84.

Sutherland

E. H.

(1983). White collar crime—the uncut version. Yale University Press.

85.

Tauber

(2023). Workers cheer as city council passes stronger protections against wage theft. Denverite. https://denverite.com/2023/01/09/workers-cheer-as-city-council-passes-stronger-protections-against-wage-theft/

86.

Thomas

Georges

M.-V.

Ogoe

Hallberg

Veisman

Wilkinson

Holley

Shrestha

Ladner

(2022). The role of financial insecurity, racial discrimination, and comorbid health conditions on mental health in Canada and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 54(3), 177–203. https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2022.0019

87.

Tombs

Whyte

(2015). The corporate criminal: Why corporations must be abolished. Routledge.

88.

Trahan

(2011). Filling in the Gaps in Culture-Based Theories of Organizational Crime. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology, 3(1), 89–109.

89.

United States Government Accountability Office . (2009). GAO’S undercover investigation: Wage theft of America’s vulnerable workers. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg48054/html/CHRG-111hhrg48054.htm

90.

U.S. Department of Labor . (2023). Federal court requires Las Vegas paint, specialty coatings contractor who intimidated workers to pay $3.6M to 593 employees in four states. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20230130-0

91.

Valenzuela

Theodore

Meléndez

Gonzalez

A. L.

(2006). On the corner: Day labor in the United States. UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.

92.

van Erp

(2011). Naming without shaming: The publication of sanctions in the Dutch financial market. Regulation & Governance, 5(3), 287–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2011.01115.x

93.

VanHeuvelen

(2020). The right to work, power resources, and economic inequality. American Journal of Sociology, 125(5), 1255–1302. https://doi.org/10.1086/708067

94.

Vaughan

(1983). Controlling unlawful organizational behavior. University of Chicago Press.

95.

Wang

Holtfreter

(2012). The effects of Corporation- and industry-level strain and opportunity on corporate crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 49(2), 151–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427810395321

96.

Waren

(2014). Wage theft among Latino day laborers in post-katrina New Orleans: Comparing contractors with other employers. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 15(4), 737–751. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-013-0303-7

97.

WRDS . (2025). Wharton research data services (WRDS). https://wrds-www.wharton.upenn.edu

98.

Zafirovski

(2003). Measuring and making sense of labor exploitation in contemporary society: A comparative analysis. Review of Radical Political Economics, 35(4), 462–484. https://doi.org/10.1177/0486613403257802

99.

Zaman

Atawnah

Baghdadi

G. A.

Liu

(2021). Fiduciary duty or loyalty? Evidence from co-opted boards and corporate misconduct. Journal of Corporate Finance, 70(October), 102066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.102066