Bill increases wage theft penalties and worker recovery rights.
S. 4919 — Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act · Filed by Patty Murray (D-WA) · 25 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
Employers must give workers detailed pay stubs and final paychecks within 14 days of leaving. Workers can sue for wage theft up to 4–5 years after it happens. Previously the limit was 2–3 years. Workers can now get paid back 2–3 times the stolen amount. The Department of Labor can give money to nonprofits and community groups to stop wage theft.
Who it affects
Low-wage workers gain stronger rights to see their pay. Employers must follow new rules about pay stubs and final payments. Nonprofits and community groups can get grants to help workers.
One thing to notice
Workers can now get 2–3 times their stolen wages back instead of one time the amount stolen. This makes wage theft much more costly for employers.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
25 cosponsors: 24 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Jun 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- wage theft — When an employer does not pay a worker the full amount they earned.
- pay stubs — A record that shows how much money a worker earned and what was taken out.
- Department of Labor — The federal agency that enforces rules about how workers must be paid.
- nonprofits — Organizations that use money to help people instead of making profit.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (36,786 characters) on Aug 17, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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