[tzs]

> "Not receiving agreed upon wages" is wage theft, full stop. They don't care if your bank collapsed or your great aunt ran off with contents of the cash register

The wage theft section of the California Penal Code (section 487m) says it is the intentional deprivation of wages. The California Labor Code talks about it in section 216, which applies when the employer has the ability to pay and willfully refuses.

It is hard to see how failure to pay because your bank collapsed and you can't get the money would be either intentional or a willful refusal.