HR 2299
Advanced toward a vote
Establishes a Department of Labor program that lets employers who voluntarily find and correct their own unintentional minimum wage and overtime violations settle back pay with affected workers, with workers free to accept or decline the settlement.
Official title: Ensuring Workers Get PAID Act of 2025
Timeline each lane is a chamber; dates pull from congress.gov actions
House
Introduced
24-MAR-2025
Referred
24-MAR-2025
Approved by committee
20-NOV-2025
Reported
03-MAR-2026
On the calendar
03-MAR-2026
- Requires the Wage and Hour Administrator to make compliance assistance resources available to employers within 30 days of enactment.
- Directs the Administrator to approve a qualifying employer's self-audit application within 30 days and supervise settlement payments to affected employees.
- Bars the Administrator from using application information against the employer in an investigation, from charging a fee, and from expanding the scope of violations beyond those the employer identified.
- Allows an affected employee to accept a settlement, which waives the right to sue for the covered back wages and liquidated damages, or to decline it and keep the right to sue.
- Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to bar retaliation against employees who accept or decline a program settlement.
Current. The Congressional Research Service's summary covers the bill's latest wording (Reported to House, 03-MAR-2026).
CRS is the Library of Congress's nonpartisan research office. Read it on congress.govLabor and Employment
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