How do you define "employees stealing time from the employer"?

It seems to me the only way to "steal time" from the employer would be if you literally had someone else clock in for you when you weren't there or lied on your time card, both of which generally get the offender fired and are small-scale issues. Once someone has clocked in, it seems impossible to "steal time" from the employer -- the employer is paying for the employee's presence, so it's all just shades from slacking to working hard.

Could you provide a definition?

Are you suggesting full-time employees who are exempt from overtime laws working less than 40 hours a week some weeks?

Or are you suggesting employees who write down that they started at 10:00 and left at 6:30 but really got in at 10:05?

I care about a small time clinician who finds out someone on his staff has been wasting time on facebook half the day instead of working on a project they need done. I care not even one teeny-tiny little bit about the same behaviour at a corporation that pays its CEO 300x the average worker, poisons tax policy with lobbying, and actively tries to outsource its workforce.

I care a lot about the small time dev who is forced into working unpaid OT. I don't give any shits whatsoever about big boy contractor charging 500/hour not getting paid for a week because of a dispute.

This is not a ledger issue, this is a power issue.

That's probably significant but living in a world where people cared would be extremely unpleasant and likely less productive.

<What about employees stealing time from the employer?> If an employee is caught stealing time from his/her job, they are usually fired, no questions asked. If an employer steals time from an employee, especially when the times of work were preset and agreed upon, if the employee complains usually they are reminded that there's always someone else who can do the job if they don't want to.

What about it? It’s a different problem altogether. First, it’s not necessarily illegal. Second, there is a power disparity between employer and employee that makes wage theft hard for an employee to fight.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism