The Don't STEAL Act strengthens protections against wage theft by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to impose stricter penalties on employers who fail to pay workers their full wages or overtime. The bill applies to any employee engaged in commerce and establishes new criminal penalties, including up to five years in prison and fines for willful violations involving unpaid wages or overtime exceeding $1,000, with lesser penalties for amounts of $1,000 or less. Civil penalties are also increased, and courts must consider factors like the number of affected employees and the employer's business size when determining appropriate fines. The legislation directs all criminal fines collected under the law to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division to fund wage theft enforcement efforts. The law would take effect 90 days after passage.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.