Time Theft
The phrase cuts both ways — stolen hours from employers, and shaved pay from workers. Both are expensive.
What an hour a day costs (or is worth)
Per person / year
$1,250.00
Team / year
$12,500.00
Hours stolen from employers
- Buddy punching — clocking in for someone late or absent
- Extended breaks — 45-minute lunches punched as 30
- Inflated manual entries — rounding up on paper sheets
- Ghost hours — clocking in before starting work
Fixes: biometric or PIN punch clocks, geofenced mobile clock-ins, and random audits — but the cheapest control is making the timesheet match reality: same-day entry, manager sign-off, and systems that flag outliers.
Pay stolen from workers (wage theft — the larger number)
- Off-the-clock work — pre-shift prep, post-shift closing, answering messages after clock-out
- One-direction rounding — rounding that only ever shaves employee time (see rounding rules)
- Auto-deducted breaks that didn't happen (nursing's classic case)
- Misclassified overtime — OT paid at straight time, or salaried non-exempt workers denied OT entirely
Research consistently estimates wage theft in the billions per year nationally (EPI's frequently cited estimate is roughly $50B a year), concentrated in low-wage sectors. The worker's defense is a personal record: your own punches, kept daily, compared against every check. Our time card calculator exists partly for that — private, local, and yours.
Frequently asked questions
Is time theft a crime?
Employee→employer time theft can be prosecuted as fraud or theft of services in serious cases, but is usually handled as a firing offense. Employer→employee time theft is a wage-and-hour violation: recoverable through state labor agencies (often 2–3× the underpayment) or private suits.
What should I do if my hours were shaved?
Gather your own records (punch photos, personal timesheet), compare against pay stubs, raise it with payroll in writing first, and if unresolved, file with your state labor department or the U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division — both take claims without cost.