Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act of 2025
Congress Proposes Program to Help Workers Get Back Pay Faster Through Voluntary Employer Audits
Legislative Progress
Key Points
- This bill creates a permanent program at the Labor Department that lets employers check their own records for pay mistakes. If a company finds they accidentally underpaid workers for overtime or minimum wage, they can report the error and pay the back wages immediately without facing extra penalties.
- Workers who were underpaid would receive the full amount of money they are owed. If a worker accepts the payment, they agree not to sue the company for that specific mistake. However, workers have the right to turn down the settlement if they would rather take the company to court on their own.
- The goal is to get money back to workers faster than a typical government investigation. A previous test of this program showed that workers received about four times more money per case than they did through standard investigations, and the process was twice as fast.
- To join the program, employers must be acting in good faith. They cannot participate if they are already being sued or investigated for the same pay issue, or if they have been caught breaking these same pay laws in the last five years.
- The law includes protections to make sure workers are not fired or punished for choosing to accept or decline a settlement. It also prevents the government from using an employer's self-report against them if their application to the program is turned down.
Impact Analysis
Personal Impact
Life & Work
The bill explicitly excludes workers subject to prevailing wage requirements under the H-1B, H-2B, and H-2A visa programs from the definition of 'affected employee.' This means visa holders under those programs cannot receive settlements through this program, though the bill does preserve the Department of Labor's existing enforcement authority over those visa programs. Visa holders not covered by prevailing wage requirements would be eligible like any other employee.
Programs
Milestones
Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 464.
The bill is now on the schedule for the full chamber to consider. It's in line for debate and a vote.
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Education and Workforce. H. Rept. 119-539.
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 20 - 15.
The committee approved this bill and is sending it to the full chamber for a vote. This is a significant step — most bills never get this far.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
Related News
4 articlesHouse Panel Advances Bill to Revive Trump-Era Payroll Audit Program
A House committee approved a Republican-led bill to codify a Department of Labor program that allows employers to self-audit and settle wage-and-hour violations without facing penalties. The measure aims to speed up back-pay distributions to workers by bypassing lengthy government investigations.
House Committee OKs Bill To Revive Voluntary Wage Audit Program
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce voted 20-15 to advance the Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act. The legislation would permanently establish the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program, which was a pilot under the Trump administration before being ended by the Biden DOL.
Bills Amending the FLSA Advance in Congress
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has approved legislation that would codify the Payroll Audit Independent Determination program. The 'Ensuring Workers Get Paid Act' (H.R. 2299) would allow employers to voluntarily participate in a program to fix inadvertent payroll mistakes.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act of 2025
Data Sources
Sponsor
Cosponsors
(5)Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.