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Wage theft is treated as a civil issue because it’s not actually “theft” despite its name. It’s not a business taking money away from someone, it’s the business failing to pay money for a contractual obligation.

Do you want a failure to pay your plumber to be prosecuted as theft?

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It already is. Its called theft of services. Never seen it applied to a conventional employee though, but why shouldn't it be?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_of_services#:~:text=Thef....

No, if you dispute that the plumber did not do the work correctly, it is not theft of services. Theft of services is for a subset of fraudulent behavior.

This is kind of what I was talking about. Why do you think paying the plumber is optional?

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