Bill increases penalties for employers who steal workers' wages.
S. 5386 — Don’t STEAL Act · Filed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · Introduced Sep 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill makes wage theft a federal crime. Employers who steal more than $1,000 face up to 5 years in prison. Employers must pay workers at least the minimum wage. Fines go to the Department of Labor for enforcement.
Who it affects
Workers gain a federal right to their full wages. Employers face much stronger criminal and civil penalties.
One thing to notice
The law only covers workers in jobs that cross state lines. Workers in purely intrastate jobs may not be protected.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 14, 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 workers the full wages they earned.
- minimum wage — The lowest hourly pay an employer is allowed to give a worker.
- Department of Labor — The federal agency that enforces rules about pay and working conditions.
- civil penalties — Money fines a court can order a company to pay for breaking the law.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,724 characters) on Sep 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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 2026-09-22.
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