How researchers are using data science to map wage theft Professor John Howe and Timothy Kariotis February 11, 2021 The underpayment of 7-Eleven workers brought wage theft to pubic attention. Source: Getty. What started as a few underpayment cases revealed by the Australian media in 2015 has turned into an epidemic of ‘wage theft’. Wage theft is the popular term that has come to describe “under-or non-payment of minimum wages and entitlements that are rightfully owed to a worker”. Wage theft broke into the public consciousness at large in 2015 with a joint investigation by Fairfax Media and ABC’s Four Corners into underpayment of 7-Eleven workers.