# The Don't STEAL Act: What It Does

This bill is about making sure workers get paid what they're owed. It tackles "wage theft"—when employers illegally withhold or fail to pay workers their full wages or overtime. The bill does this by creating stronger legal protections for workers and tougher punishments for employers who steal wages.

The core of the bill establishes a new legal right: employees must be paid at least the higher of either what their employment contract promises or what federal and state minimum wage laws require. This might sound obvious, but it creates a clear legal standard that workers can point to if they're underpaid. The bill applies to most workers in jobs that involve interstate commerce—which covers the vast majority of American workers.

On the enforcement side, the bill significantly increases criminal penalties for wage theft. If an employer willfully violates wage laws and steals more than $1,000 from workers, they can face up to five years in prison and substantial fines. For smaller amounts (under $1,000), the penalty is up to one year in prison. When judges decide on fines, they must consider how serious the violation is, how many workers were affected, whether the employer has done this before, and the size of the business. The bill also strengthens civil penalties—the money employers must pay back to workers—and directs all criminal fines collected to fund the Department of Labor's wage enforcement division, giving them more resources to investigate and prosecute wage theft cases.

Essentially, this bill treats wage theft more like a serious crime rather than a minor business violation, and it puts real teeth into enforcement by funding the agencies that investigate these cases.