That’s not what wage theft is. It’s bullshit and wouldn’t happen in a just society. But, “wage theft” is a specific term and this isn’t it.

Wags theft is when you make workers clock out for meetings or make tipped staff do back of house work, misusing terms just desensitizes people to them.

No it isn't.

My boss requires me to be on call, without pay. That's wage theft.

Blame Reagan (again/still). The biggest cause of the discrepancy is allowing stock buybacks. It's too attractive to ceos/boards/investors to take their profits and use it to pump equity price rather than allocate it to wages and other direct investment in the company.

Fortunately, it's a pretty simple first step - ban stock buybacks

Also, if you're not getting a yearly raise at least to match inflation then you're being paid less.