# Plain Language Summary: The Don't STEAL Act

This bill is designed to crack down on wage theft—when employers don't pay workers the full wages they've earned or owed overtime pay. Right now, the penalties for wage theft are relatively weak, so the bill significantly increases both the criminal punishments and fines that employers face if they're caught stealing from their workers' paychecks.

The bill creates two levels of criminal penalties depending on how much money was stolen. If an employer willfully withholds more than $1,000 in wages or overtime from workers, they can face up to five years in prison and substantial fines. If the amount stolen is $1,000 or less, the penalty drops to up to one year in prison. When deciding on fines, judges will consider how serious the violation was, how many employees were affected, whether the employer has done this before, and the size of the business. The bill also makes clear that employers must pay workers whatever rate they promised in employment contracts or collective bargaining agreements, even if that's higher than the legal minimum.

To help enforce these new rules, any fines collected from wage theft cases will go directly to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, giving them more resources to investigate and prosecute wage theft cases. This creates a financial incentive to actually pursue these violations. The changes take effect 90 days after the bill becomes law and apply to wage theft violations that happen after that date.

For workers, this means stronger legal protection against employers who try to shortchange them on pay. For employers, it means significantly harsher consequences if they're caught violating wage laws, making wage theft a much riskier practice than it currently is.