US-Colorado| Wage Theft Bill receives Governor’s assent

The Colorado’s Governor gives assent to the Wage Theft Bill thereby making it a law

On 9th June, 2022 Colorado’s Governor signed the wage theft bill into law. The Act is related to the payment of wages, mis classification of employees and safety at workplace. It is introduced to provide remedies for the violation of law related to the wages withheld by the employers of their workers without any notice.

Highlights of the Act:

1. If someone fails to provide the requested information to the division of labor standards and statistics (DLSS) then they will be imposed with the daily penalty of not less than $50.
2. Penalties will be deposited to the wage theft enforcement fund.
3. If the employee terminates his employment and fails to return or repay any amount then the employer needs to give a notice to an employee within 10 days after the termination of employment before deducting any amount from the wages and if the employee returns or repay the amount within 14 days then the the employer needs to pay the deducted amount within next 14 days.
4. If the employer fails to pay all due wages to the employee within 14 days after a written demand or civil or administrative action is proposed to the employer then an automatic penalty of $1000 or 2 times of unpaid wages will be imposed on the employer.
5. If an employee is able to prove that employer willfully did not pay his/her due wages, then the employer will be imposed with $3000 or 3 times of unpaid wages.
6. DLSS were allowed to gather information regarding the wages, employee and employers with the help of existing authorities related to labour.
7. If the case is in the favour of employee then the the employer needs to pay the undue wages within 60 days of the determination of the case or else he will be imposed with an additional fine of 50% of the undue wages or $3000.

8. The Act allows to establish the worker and employee unit to investigate and curb wage theft. This unit will also help in mis clarifying any problem regarding employer-employee relation and would answer all the questions related to the issues of the employee.