I think the usage here is the common one, and your idiosyncratic. "wage theft" has been consistently talked about this way for several decades at least among policy types etc.
Thanks for the comment. A sibling comment points out "time theft" which I have also heard regarding an employee not working, so to speak. I can honestly say I did not read economic policy pieces until quite recently in my life, so I had not, as far as I can recall, heard it used this way. I can also anecdotally say that most management in lower paying positions in the parts of the US I have worked are rather infamous for malapropisms.
edit:typo