Sponsors (27)
Official title: To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 to prevent wage theft and assist in the recovery of stolen wages, to authorize the Secretary of Labor to administer grants to prevent wage and hour violations, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 25, 2026 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress June 25, 2026
The bill strongly expands protections, enforcement, and recovery tools for low-wage and vulnerable workers—improving pay transparency and deterrence of wage theft—but does so at the cost of higher compliance expenses, increased litigation and enforcement burdens, and added demands on employers, government agencies, and taxpayers.
Low-wage, immigrant, women, and racial-ethnic-minority workers will get stronger protections and clearer pay information (regular paystubs, timely final pay, language access), making it easier and faster for them to detect and recover unpaid wages.
Increased enforcement capacity through Department of Labor funding, grants, and community partnerships will expand outreach, help identify noncompliant employers, and provide workers with local recovery and legal assistance.
Workers gain a longer window to sue (up to 4 years, 5 for willful violations) plus tolling during DOL investigations, preserving more claims and increasing the chance of recovering back pay.
Employers—especially small businesses—will face higher compliance costs (payroll systems, translations, recordkeeping, administrative changes) and greater exposure to penalties, which could lead to higher prices or reduced hiring.
The bill will likely increase litigation and administrative caseloads (longer exposure to claims, tolling during investigations, eased collective actions), imposing time and cost burdens on courts, employers, and sometimes workers.
Substantially higher penalties, trebled liquidated damages, interest, and expanded criminal referral risk raise the financial and legal stakes for employers and managers, increasing the risk of severe employer liability or criminal exposure for recordkeeping errors.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Requires employer pay disclosures and paystubs, lengthens deadlines to sue for unpaid wages and tolls those deadlines during DOL investigations, and funds grants for local enforcement and outreach.
Requires employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act to give written disclosures at hire and when terms change, provide regular paystubs and final pay at separation, and keep records; lengthens federal statutes of limitation for unpaid-wage claims and tolls those limits while the Department of Labor investigates. Creates a Department of Labor grant program to fund community partnerships, outreach, compliance assistance, and local enforcement activities to prevent wage theft and help workers recover stolen wages. The Secretary of Labor must issue implementing regulations within 18 months; the substantive amendments take effect six months after final regulations or 18 months after enactment, whichever is earlier.