Congress moves to criminalize wage theft with up to 5 years in prison
H.R. 5048 — Don’t STEAL Act · Filed by Seth Magaziner (D-RI) · 28 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 26, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to strengthen enforcement against wage theft by increasing criminal and civil penalties. It establishes a new right to full compensation requiring employers to pay the greater of contractual wages or applicable federal/state minimum wage, and creates tiered criminal penalties (up to 5 years imprisonment for wage theft exceeding $1,000, up to 1 year for amounts of $1,000 or less), with fines collected directed to the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division for enforcement.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is strengthening criminal and civil penalties for wage theft and directing enforcement resources to the Department of Labor. This is fundamentally a labor-protection and enforcement measure, not a tax or regulatory carve-out.
What the text implies
- The 90-day effective date creates a brief window before penalties apply, potentially allowing employers to adjust practices before enforcement begins.
- Tiered penalties based on dollar amount ($1,000 threshold) may create incentives for employers to structure violations as multiple smaller thefts to avoid felony-level prosecution.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who it affects
Workers gain a statutory right to full compensation and stronger legal recourse against wage theft, with meaningful criminal penalties and increased enforcement resources. The bill directly protects employees from employer non-payment and underpayment, a concrete public benefit with no offsetting cost to ordinary citizens.