age investigative reporter ben schneiders , author of 'hard labour: wage theft in the age of inequality' (scribe 2022) discusses with me his revelatory and shocking stories of how millions of the lowest paid workers across the economy have over many years been disempowered, exploited and ripped of by some of the largest, powerful and high profile businesses who have systemically and often illegally underpaid them to the tune of billions of dollars a year at a time when wages have been kept deliberately flat by governments, inequality has grown and wealth discrepancies have increased. he explores how this has come about, what it means for democracy and what might be done about it.