The proposed DOL overtime rules are a walk in the park compared to this new “wage theft prevention” bill

Businesses will be like…

That’s because, earlier this month, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), introduced the Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act. According to this HELP press release, this new bill would put a lot of additional sharp fangs into the Fair Labor Standards Act.

For starters, the Act would:

Require employers to pay all wages owed to an employee (not just minimum wage and overtime);
Add more recordkeeping requirements for employers;
Make it easier for employees to join collective actions against their employer; employees would have to opt-out, rather than opt-in;
Increase the damages for an FLSA violation, in some cases quadrupling the wages owed; and
Extend the statute of limitations on FLSA claims.

Realistically,the support won’t be there in either the House or Senate to push this bill along to the President. However, if the November elections result in big wins across the board for the Democrats, don’t be surprised if the new proposed DOL overtime rules begin a domino effect of employee-friendly changes to the FLSA.

So, how confident are you that your business is FLSA compliant? If it’s anything less than “very,” consider a wage and hour audit conducted by an outside employment lawyer. Better to pay a few bucks now to make it right, then make it rain later when a FLSA lawsuit goes very wrong for your business.

Image Credit: Dan Moyle on Flickr.