Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act of 2025

Employers could self-report wage violations and settle through Labor — workers who accept give up the right to sue.

The details

Employers could report their own wage-and-hour mistakes to the Labor Department and settle them under supervision. The program is called Payroll Audit Independent Determination, or PAID. It ran as a pilot from 2018 to 2019 and would become permanent. An employer would audit its own payroll and list every affected worker. It would calculate the back pay owed and fix the practice. Only employers not already under investigation or facing a lawsuit could apply. Labor would have to approve or deny within 30 days. Workers would receive a release form explaining the settlement. Accepting it means full payment of the back wages owed. It also means giving up the right to sue over those violations. That includes the double damages wage law normally allows. Declining keeps the right to sue intact. The form must spell out both choices. Punishing a worker for accepting or declining would become illegal retaliation under wage law. Several limits would protect employers who apply. If Labor rejects an application, it could not use what the employer disclosed in an investigation. It also could not treat the application itself as grounds for a future investigation. Child labor and farmworker safety concerns are carved out of that protection. Labor could not tell affected workers about their right to sue in response to a rejected application. Application materials would be shielded from court discovery unless the employer agrees. Workers covered by Davis-Bacon, the Service Contract Act, or H-2A, H-2B, and H-1B wage rules are excluded from the program.