If you steal $100 from work, you will be arrested and charged with a crime... If your boss steals $100 out of your paycheck, it is a civil matter that you need to sue them over.

Walmart has no rights. Walmart is not a person If you see someone shoplifting? No you didn't.

Wage theft has been made a jailable crime in some states of Australia. It should be even harsher and made the same everywhere. Fines don't cut it, put executives in jail.

Shorting people breaks and classifying workers as independent contractors is also super prevalent in the medical industry.

Companies: It's cheaper to violate the law, even if you get caught! Regular People: (Shoplift basic necessities) Companies: No, not like that.

Imagine how fewer thefts there'd be if people earned a good wage.

Remember: If you ever catch someone stealing food, no you didn't.

Wage theft is reinforced outside the workplace. If you go home and tell your parents that you're being pressured to work off the clock, not take breaks, ect, you'd usually get in trouble for complaining. "It's called being a team player/good worker, goddamnit! You just want to be paid for being lazy! How else are you supposed to make it in the REAL WORLD!?!?"

Stolen wages should be paid back double, and out of the pockets of the people running the company

Hey guys, this is [Your US Employer]. As you may have heard, we experienced some heavy losses in revenue this past year. And by 'losses' we of course mean 'enormous gains,' but not *quite* as enormous as we were hoping for. There are many possible explanations for these losses (by which, again, we mean not-enormous-enough gains), but we think the biggest factor is probably selfish nasty poor people stealing our shit! In any case, we're going to have to lay off several hundred of you. We hope that doesn't affect your Christmas plans. Check back with us in a few weeks because we'll be hiring some 'freelancers' to fill your permanent full-time positions (sans all those complicated benefits packages). After all, it's not like we're living in some kind of dystopia.

Imagine Walmart of all companies decrying theft from their stores and threatening to close locations while they make it policy to ask people to work overtime and then ask them to take "long lunches" so they don't have to pay overtime. What a world we live in, let me shed a tear for poor old Walmart.

I was a victim of wage theft at my first job. Not just being underpaid, but my manager just straight up stealing money from my paycheck. I worked at a restaurant as a cook. When I clocked in, she'd go into the system and edit it to change me from cook ($7.50/hour) to server ($2.50/hour+tips), and at the end of my shift, she'd edit it again to say that I made $50+ in tips because she's legally required to pay if the employee doesn't reach minimum wage with tips. So she was taking $5 from every hour of my paycheck, and lying that I was making more tips every night than the actual servers did in most weeks. As you can imagine, this is very illegal. I found evidence of this when one of the shift leads who had access to the system let me check my system logs, and every single entry had been changed and stamped with "Edited by (manager's name)" He noticed that she'd been doing it to him too on days that he worked as a driver rather than lead, and helped all of us check our logs. She had been doing it to all of her employees, except for people who only worked as leads since she knew she couldn't get away with that. As you can imagine, this is very illegal. I printed this out and tried to contact anyone I could. She had removed the numbers for her higher ups because she knew we'd call about her shady bullshit so I wasn't able to call them. I tried showing her boss when he came in for an inspection not long after I checked my logs, but he refused to even speak to me, saying he was "too busy to listen to some kid rant about this, that, and the other." I tried to contact the closest BBB office, but was never able to get through to anyone. A couple weeks later, I gave up on trying to report it and handed in my 2 weeks notice in writing after getting another job lined up. As soon as the manager saw it, she fired me and sent me home, which is also illegal because you can't fire someone for putting in their notice, but at that point, I didn't care. I just left and that was it. I really wish I had fought harder for her to face legal repercussions, since it wasn't just me that she did it to, but I was only 17 at the time and didn't know what else to do.

I work for a nonprofit and I advocate that we should be telling the community about wage theft and teaching how to start unions. It's why people are poor why shouldn't we try to fix it.

When I was training to be a GM at a large pizza company (Domino’s) one of “the best cost cutters in the company” came in to teach us how to keep to budget, and I had to sit and watch her cut $200 worth of hours from my own time logs that she deemed “unnecessary”, and then found out that she’d been tweaking the inventory numbers at her own store for years to make it look like her food cost was so low. Two weeks later I left when she tried to make me to sign a statement saying my AM “abandoned his shift” when I had literally watched her scream at him to leave and not come back, so that he wouldn’t be able to claim unemployment.

That whole "construction company hires another company" reminds me of that story where a guy hired an assassin, who instead of doing the job offered half his payment as reward for another assassin to do his job for him, who did the same. This chain continued until the final hired killer decided the reward wasn't worth it and instead tipped off the future victim.

You go to jail if you take $100 from your boss's cash register, *but your boss doesn't go to jail if he takes $100 from your paycheck...*

Also remembering that awful tweet from the NYPD of shoplifting confiscations, and it was all like,,,, baby formula, diapers, wet wipes, OTC medication.... Imagine how much less shoplifting there would be if we actually paid people a living wage (and didnt steal their already meager wages 💀💀💀)

“You can’t steal, that’s our job” -every company ever allegedly

The people that actually do zero work call us lazy

I used to work in retail. Shoplifting didn't happen very often, and when it did it was almost always a small item torn out of its packaging with the packaging left on the shelf. Wage theft, on the other hand? They tried that shit on me CONSTANTLY.

the gig worker thing really pissed me off. companies really said "yeeaaah they're our employees but they're not like *employee* employees, ya know?"

Rob a liquor store for 400$ you're going to prison for life, steal 400 billion dollars as a corporation and theyll probably let you name a football stadium after yourself.

I’ve absolutely had my wages stolen and, when I became a manager, often got into it with my boss over that. There was a lot of emotional manipulation that went on to keep people working for free, cutting breaks short, and misreporting their hours so they wouldn’t get overtime pay they had absolutely earned. If you can’t run a business ethically, then you don’t deserve to have a business.

The gig thing sucks because it starts of feeling like you're your own boss but quickly turns into what is essentially a gambling addiction that doesn't pay out

The US wage gap between the average worker to CEO should be A felony.

God I love SMN's open contempt for their advertisers, and yet those marketing simps keep coming back for sweet, delicious air time

Had an employer steal our tips for year, fired a shift-lead for calling them out. Took me a year of emailing back and forth with the labor/employment office to prove something that was visible by casually looking at the numbers. It's hard to resolve wage theft on purpose. They don't want you to do anything about it at all

My main take away from this being I shouldn't feel bad if I accidentally walk out without paying for something. Good to know!

I'm from Massachusetts and am in university here. Im currently fighting my school to not be required to pay $3,000 to do an unpaid internship that they call a "class". Working for no pay is normalized to the point that it is a graduation requirement. Its so gross.

It would be nice if corporations were interested in an honest day's pay for an honest day's work instead of finding loopholes and workarounds to slave labor.

A part of wage theft that wasn't really touched on was having to do work off the clock. I bet every single hourly employee in the nation have experienced doing something while not getting paid literally every single day they work. Every time your boss asks you a question while you're on lunch, those text messages you get from your employer, the questions retail customers ask you while off the clock but you help them anyway out of fear of losing your job. So many instances every day that take money out of workers pockets and it's not even measurable.

I used to work at a pizza place as a driver and quit that job after about 6 months. But about 6 months later I get a letter in the mail that says that they didn't pay me and a load of other drivers in the area what they earned. Turns out they weren't paying enough for mileage that was measured at the end of each shift and I ended up getting a little check in the mail. It's crazy how often this kind of stuff happens, thanks to whoever decided to go after them for that, that kind of consequence (or harsher probably) should be the norm and not an exception.

Most of shrink isn't theft. Its damages, mishandling, expiration. Theft is less than 20% of shrink calculations.

Katie's contempt for that first ad read was a lot even for this show 😂

Two of the companies I previously worked for had to give me a payout in unpaid wages and I didn't even need to do anything because of the class action lawsuit. They stole far more from me than any petty criminal.

Anti-retail theft measures got SO many people killed in the past due to how they made it impossible to get out in fires. Some theaters used to lock certain sections to keep out people sneaking in: a bunch of people died because they were stuck. There was a Woolworth fire in the 70s where a ton of barriers were welded in place to stop people breaking in, and emergency exits were locked. And people died.

The sticker price of every item on the shelf already has the price of theft worked in. Every stolen item is already paid for. Wage theft more than pays for shoplifting. Way more.

I worked at Lowes overnight for a year. 2-15 minutes breaks. 1-1 hour break. Was never allowed to even walk outside to get fresh air. When I finally had enough and quit in the middle of a shift. They were refusing to even unlock the door to let me out then. I gave them two choices. 1- Call the police and tell them I was being held against my will (what's that called again?...kidnapping?). 2- Grab a sledgehammer and make my own exit.

The home depot guy also owns a bar in my town, and i work for a company that services their slot machines. Dude is so delusional and detatched from the real world that one time he screamed at my boss bc we didnt reserve a parking spot for his rolls royce in our parking lot. Hes also the type of guy who buys into an already successful company and demands that people refer to him as a founder. The only thing bigger than the guys bank account is his ego

I was a bike messenger for about 20 years. An "independent contractor". The abuses in that industry were incredible. No paid holidays, no paid sick days, unpaid statutory holidays, and all sorts of ways to take money out of our pockets for various "work offenses" and other specious reasons. And that's just scratching the surface.

My best friend who is a school teacher recently took up a second job at a restaurant we've been supporting since they've opened. We've collectively probably put some of his employees through college with how much we go there. The owner who we thought was a friend, you know, since we've sent him qualified applicants during his time of need during covid, helped with overnight 2am deep cleans, had Christmas, Thanksgiving, and birthday dinners with, had no problem stealing my best friends tips since day one. How'd we find out? Well, you probably shouldn't hire a math teacher with a masters in PURE MATH as the person to count drawers and tips every night if you're going to steal from them. You give them pay stubs! How dumb can you be!?

Finally somebody said it. I've been saying this for years. Jobs have no problem stealing from you and will do it any chance they get.

I wonder what the actual shoplifting and organized crime "losses" are after insurance claims are paid and tax write-offs are taken. Hmmm? Also, I would bet the numbers reported are on the marked-up prices rather than the costs to the business. The business pays $5.00 a shirt and sells it for $20.00, but on sale, it's $15.00! The store likely reports it as a $20.00 loss.

As someone who worked in retail for over a decade, "shrink" also includes broken and expired products. A very small portion of shrink is from theft in most cases 😑

Crime is a social construct. Compare what happens to an employee that swipes $100 from the till vs. an employer stealing $100 from a worker's paycheck.

I worked for Sam's Club once (yes, people asked if it was MY club on a daily basis), and this happened all the time. I was a naive teenager at the time, so I had no idea what was going on. The thought that a major corporation would steal from a worker's paycheck didn't compute, and management certainly never came out and said it. They just gave us mutually exclusive expectations, like needing to take breaks and lunches to avoid overtime, but never being able to actually close your station because there was never enough staff on hand for people to cover each other's breaks. I was let go after just a few months, because it turns out that you can only ask your manager for clarification of an illegal policy so many times before it becomes easier to replace you with a nearly indistinguishable naive teenager. Only years later did it hit me that he was trying to gently nudge me toward willingly donating one free hour of labor every day for the glory of the Walton family.

I guess I'm going to have to be the one to say it. Congrats to Cody and the team on making it an entire episode without a c*m joke! 🏅 I can finally share an episode with the more straight laced in my family. I'd tell you how excited I got over this, but it would ruin everything.

19:20 I love how the lead in of 'speaking of useless things, heres more ads' is then followed by one of the most genuine ad readings ive heard on this channel

Why isn't part of the punishment that they have to actually then PAY the wages that were STOLEN? Normally when you prove something is stolen, it's given back to the person it was stolen from. The fine+paying the owed wages would of course then be higher than not paying the wages. Of course that relies on them getting found out but still.

Rent rates in my local area went up by 46% in one month across the board. Every complex, every company, the entire city. Every single one of them back in October of 2023 raised rent by 46% this doubling rent costs. That in turn caused 300,000 people to lose their home and become homeless; that number of homeless has been rising since. The excuse why they didn't stop the companies that own the rental properties from doing this? Well that's free market capitalism baby.

I love the way you cover adverts - the outstanding argument against needing the very product you then schill, almost as if you resent having to take money from these soulless planet killers but are pragmatic enough to understand you need money to keep espousing your viewpoint. I would personally love to see all online content creators taking this stance as I think it is fair enough to accept sponsorships if you then give an honest view of the value of said product before giving it the old "hard" sell. You know, fair and balanced ;-) and the very least that should happen to reign in the current corpo nightmare we exist in. And as a friendly aside, as a family we have ceased all non-necessity purchases and then research who to give the excess money to each month and all of us have never been happier, closer or more fulfilled. Stuff you don't need folks is called "rubbish".

1:49 "Some richer, more terrible version of me." showing Matt Walsh had me snorting audibly, thank you for your lighthearted presentation of horrible problems as always.

My son just had the same issue. They laid him off and then found out the intentionally mis classified him and he was ineligible for unemployment.

I've worked in food service since the 1990s I've never once been honestly compensated.

Katie throwing Nutrifol under the bus where it belongs was some badass ad-work.

Everyone, please do your part by stealing from your local retail chain. This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood Bug Man.

More Worker Unions and Worker Co-ops!!! ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽

I used to work at a Claire’s and whenever people say they steal from there I say, “Go for it, you’ll never steal as much from them as they stole from me.”

I work for a state agency and we look into wage theft. I've seen some wild cases cross my desk.

This video is timely for me. I'm literally discussing my case to get my pay from an ex employer this afternoon. There are many business owners who just can't comprehend that the moment you take on an employee, you take on a responsibility to pay them.

The balls of first bursting out laughing when you catch yourself calling your sponsor _worthless stuff,_ then keeping and using the take anyway 10/10

Imagine working hard and for so many hours and the very people telling you to do so cheat you out of the work and time so they can save money. Its almost like its not the workers fault.

Excellent piece on the American Wage Theft Crisis. As a class action wage theft lawyer, I spend a lot of time trying to educate people on this issue and employer's dirty tricks when it comes to wage theft. This forum can really spread the word about this consistent problem.

As somebody who has worked for many years in retail environments and spent the worst working years my life working like an animal for peanuts and stolen over time at Home Depot, I'd like to thank you for making this video.

I used to drive for Lyft. Over the years they’ve drastically changed the pay and fare rates. It used to be a percentage of what the passenger paid, then they kept cutting away at it, increasing “fees” for using the app, nowadays it’s a flat rate that varies state to state, and a majority of the time they’ll have surge pricing for the passengers but pay drivers the same low flat rate. They’re quite literally price gouging their contractors and stiffing their pay while also still somehow hemorrhaging money like Uber

"A richer, more terrible me" and Matt Walsh shows up on the screen. absolutely beautiful

I got involved in a wage theft lawsuit with a company I used to work for 2 years after I had stopped working for them. And it was ridiculous how blatant they were stealing money. Which was basically paying us .50 to a 1.00 less than what our actual hourly pay was.

I cannot tell you how it makes my heart sing to see Cody post a video titled this on the same day I FINALLY commented on Nextdoor just to shut down an insane woman who was quoting (AND I DO IN FACT QUOTE) “some lady at cvs said it’s all the thieves” as to why the shelves were empty in a rite aid. That post had 200 comments, 90 % negative and about four in all caps. Something had to be said.

I remember when I was younger and working for a hand carwash. There was a tip box and the manager had the key. Every day he would give us enough money to buy a soft-drink from the garage vending machine and pocket the rest. I still hate that guy and the owner of the garage.

Fantastic. We need an entire episode on the literal conspiracy about how companies lied about shoplifting to push policing rules.

Do Cody and Katie write each other's ad copy and then they each do a cold read? Consistently hilarious.

I live in Arkansas, a state that just recently made it legal for children to work in slaughterhouses during overnight shifts using dangerous machinery, and it's just common knowledge that workers have no rights here. I've worked places that had tons of open OSHA and labor board violations, and nothing ever happened with any of them. My husband routinely is scheduled 14 hour shifts at a restaurant and is regularly denied a break, usually having to go that entire time without eating unless he sneaks a bite of a mess up. I'm a salaried GM of a restaurant and am currently working 55+ hours a week. My hourly pay comes out to less than $9/hr. And our jobs are two of the better paying options in our town. And I spent 10 years driving an hour into the capitol city everyday for a "respectable" job and was making $10/hr. I couldn't afford childcare for my kids, and we constantly struggled to stay afloat. The owner of the restaurant I currently work for expects me to spend 24/7 doing stuff for the store. I only get one day off a week, if I'm lucky. And I'm supposed to spend that walking around in my uniform, marketing to people. If you include all the invasions of privacy and lack of boundaries he has, my pay is probably close to $5/hr. I can't wait to get out of this state. Hell I was fired from one job for filing a workers comp claim that I was forced to file, for 3rd degree burns to my hand (I still have scars), and when I talked to lawyers here about it, I was told no one would take the case bc it's pointless in this state.

Finally, real news based in reality. The poor could literally never fathom how much wealth has been siphoned from them directly into the rich’s pockets.

I really don't understand how some people in the US don't feel angry about the dystopian nature of employment there. The stories I hear from my family in the US just makes me despair for workers. It's mind-boggling just how insane everything is there. Solidarity with every worker who's getting screwed by their employer in the US.

Prop 22 is so heinous, and because of the absurdly high bar it would take meeting to get rid of it, it's likely to stick around forever. I remember getting into a weeks-long fight with a friend in California over it and they were adamant that it was better for contractors this way. They've sure been quiet about it ever since.

Wage theft is standard practice for almost every company. Some industries it’s so common that people have to give the employees extra money after they get their bill.

"speaking of worthless stuff, let's do another ad.." I love your showdy so much brody Cody.

When I was a maid my employer paid minimum wage but travel time between houses/businesses was "off the clock" so we didnt get lunches or breaks and even though on the busiest days I was working from 8 to 6 I'd only be paid for 6 hours.

Hell yeah!!! Dudes, you're back!!

True story: I have lost two potential roommates in three weeks because their bosses didn't pay them and they had to delay their moves.

Message received, shoplift more. They can't stop us all.

"But when I do it, it's cute!" - Capitalists

Thank you for this. WAGE theft is the #1 crime in the world.

Walmart's entire business model is built on closing stores. Undercut competition until you run them out of business, close store, make locals travel farther. And that's how Sam Walton built an empire

Wow, the hair loss ad was even more uninterested in advertising than AG1! Apathetic participation in capitalism is fucking awesome to witness!

I tried to get wage theft fixed at my job, turns out new union guy was not qualified for his job and really went "but we signed the contract, so they are allowed to do it" Company basically was paying a "bonus" on every hour we were doing our job so they could claim we actually make minimum wage only. Why does this matter, for overtime, holiday pay, vaccination pay etc. They only had to pay based on minimum wage, not our actual hourly pay. Thats how they thought they could get away with it. However at least where I live all that stuff is supposed to be payed based on "wage" "wage is all money expected to be received well performing regular job duties" (legal case for a mining company that tried nearly the same thing clarified this) Union idiot went well that's true but we agreed when we signed the contract. (first off you can't sign away labour rights, second it wasn't actually in the contract it's how they are doing there calculation based improperly 🤦) Worst part I had this clarified and understood by the person in his job prior, was just finishing gathering the rest of the evidence to show mangers were not incompetent but complicit, the he retired and unqualified moron took over. No longer work there but if your job is doing anything like this check and hopefully you have better luck fighting it

All these rich companies and free market sycophants are like the dog with the bone meme: "buy things!" *hand reaches for a stack of bills* "no money! Only buy things!"

Listened to this while working my shift at my retail job👍🏾

To quote Dead Prez (the only prez I’d vote for), “We ain't getting paid commission, minimum wage, modern day slave conditions Got me flippin' burgers with no power Can't even buy one off what I make in an hour”

When I worked at Rona, the time clock would automatically round to the 15 minute mark that meant it stole from you. Says your shift is for 8, clock in at 7:50 it rounds to 8. Clock in 8:05, rounds to 8:15. If you were meant to leave at 4 and clock out 4:10, it rounds back to 4. The higher ups treat every single clerk, cashier, and manager like they're disposable cogs, and pay like crap too.

When i was younger and working at a preschool. My boss tried to remove everyones overtime and not pay us. Most of us quit after that and the school was temporarily closed. 🤷‍♂️

THANK YOU! I have been screaming this from the rooftop

My bf had his wages stolen for YEARS. He never felt in a position secure enough to speak up. Now that he has, he's gotten a "well ok we'll pay you for your work i guess" sort of result, plus more headaches, minus ANY backpay. I doubt there's anything he can realistically due about the many thousands of $$$ he's owed, but ... 🤬🤬🤬

They could just fix the issue by paying fair wages, and not stealing from those already garbage wages. It is really sad.

"Maybe threatening rich business owners with prison time is good and warranted and funny..." - that is the truest statement I have ever heard.

This is a great video! I love the information provided! I agree that retail theft has been overblown. I also think that part of the reason its talked about so much is because mainstream media is owned by major conglomerates that also don't want to pay fair wages to their employees.

I love how in almost every clip of people talking about theft being a huge issue the stock market is ironically on the up

the whole gig worker scam reminded me of how the wwe treated its wrestlers

I am a 24/7 live in caretaker for a schizophrenic chain smoking incontinent wheelchair bound boomer whose son owns the house where we live. I haven't had a day off since he (a friend from middle school) hired me to take care of her, the only job offer I got when I threatened to (censored) myself on facebook if I couldn't find work and a place to live in November 2020. Her son takes more than half her income, and with what's left, she pays me $240US dollars every week to keep her clean and fed. This primarily involves dealing with an alarming amount of human waste. The water has now been turned off for almost two weeks, so I can't take a shower or do laundry. We're out of clean sheets for her. I don't expect back wages any time soon, but I will get the satisfaction of filing an Adult Protective Services claim before I'm out on the streets again.

Not sure if it would count as "theft" in the traditional sense, but at my last contract job the regulatory deadline for the project I was working on got pushed back by multiple years so my bosses decided to let most of the contractors, me included, go... and they made a point of giving us less than two weeks' notice because it was near the end of the month and they didn't want to pay the housing stipend that was included in the contract.